Org life declines in ‘AteNEO Normal’

■ Hazel Ann Aligando & Pauline Jean

Barcia

Even before the pandemic, the Supreme Student Government (SSG) and other curricular organizations reported problems with replenishing members and adjusting work relations due to the introduction of the K-12 curriculum.

Merely recovering from such significant changes, the transitions to the university’s “AteNEO normal” and back to unrestricted in-person classes once again challenged student institutions and organizations.

No elections

The SSG found itself struggling to conduct annual elections and maintain its officials for the past few years.

In 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the council to postpone the election. Then-President Kris Abigail Mendoza issued a memorandum appointing Jose Maria Rubio, the incumbent internal vice president, to the top office last 6 May 2020. A year later, Rubio also resigned, designating Angela Araneta as the officer-in-charge president on 1 March 2021.

The SSG raised that they were in the process of rebuilding the council even before the pandemic. Rubio also pointed out that they were yet to fully adjust to the hurdles of implementing the K-12 curriculum which minimized student enrolment to a great extent for two years. The pandemic later kept them from doing so, especially with member recruitment.

“Yung shift from... from prepandemic to pandemic, kumbaga mas’yadong naging mahirap ulit for SSG kasi yun nga, parang nabalik yung... yung dating challenges as to recruitment and membership,” Rubio said.

Hon. Ma. Christena Merano of the Student Congress eventually authored a resolution on 21 April 2021 determining that the SSG general elections be held on 18-19 May 2021 for the succeeding batch.

In the 2021 General Elections last August, Jenivie Novio was elected as the president of AdNU-SSG. However, just after seven months in office, Novio announced her resignation due to incapacity to fulfil her duties because of “personal challenges and circumstances” that arose. Following Novio’s resignation in March 2022, then Internal Vice President Christobal Cambe, was appointed to serve as the president during the unexpired term.

Then College of Business and Accountancy Rep. Mary Charlagne Thomas, the current president, ran for the said position, and despite the low voting turnout. She won the SSG election last 4 August 2022.

180-degree turn

Further, the pandemic caused massive challenges on the conduct of activities as well as the communication among members of SSG and curricular organizations alike.

To ensure continuity of organizations, despite the struggle for efficiency, the curricular life in the university declined substantially. “The quality of our perfomace [sic] as an organization dropped since most of our activites [sic] were cancelled but we make [sic] sure the quality of our goal stay [sic] the same,” Uswag Junior Eagles (USJE) President John Mark Sta. Isabel stated in a survey conducted by ThePILLARS Publication for VOX Ateneo previously.

The stray from in-person communication also proved to be a barrier for effective leadership. “Sa mga GC ganyan, mahirap yung parang magchachat ka tapos walang magrereply or walang magseseen,” Rubio said. Former Media Studies Society President Melanie Villareal also expressed the same viewpoint saying that some members are unresponsive.

Moreover, they brought up that the demands on academic requirements contributed to the inactivity of the members. “Nahihirapan e balance ang acads and org because we all know iba ang demand ngayon ng acads more on learning at our own pace,” Villareal explained as one reason for the officers’ decline in participation.

“We are still students na dapat maging responsible sa studies namin,” she added.

The leaders who responded to the said survey claimed that they attempted to resolve the matter by consistently checking up on each other and understanding their reasons and situations.

Villareal added that helping one another and the guidance of their moderator, chairperson, and the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) alleviated such challenges and, even with the apparent limitations, allowed them to somewhat adapt to the new normal.

“One of the plans namin is to really reestablish the connection that we had back then, and to maintain the communication or strengthen the communication among members,” Rubio stated regarding how they planned on resolving the problems they had. He also assured that the “SSG will really try its best.”

Moving forward

The elected officers of the student government and organizations for the academic year 2022 to 2023 witnessed yet another major shift as the university transitioned back from remote setup to face-to-face classes.

Officers and members were subjected to transfer responsibilities, change of platforms from online events via Facebook live streaming features, Zoom Cloud Meetings, or Google Meet to in-person activities.

As to how student leaders bore the gradual shift, former Ateneo Junior Marketing Association President Patrick Marc Nacario stated, “I’m glad that faceto-face activities are finally allowed. My goal is to let the AJMA members feel the college life by experiencing the activities we did during pre-pandemic way back in 2019.”

At present, student participation is increasing at a relatively higher number in comparison with the previous activities conducted online.

While the shift is advantageous, member replenishment remains to be a challenge to the organizations. “I already anticipated that it would be difficult to encourage all of them to join since they are still adjusting to many things, mainly on the system of AdNU, how to socialize with other members… complying with the regulations of the university (process, number of allowed participants in venue, approval of the signatories, etc.),” Nacario stated.

He also admitted that the shift is quite taxing on the end of officers, but they are determined to uphold the organization’s goals.