Oct. 21, 2014, 4:45 p.m. – THE CENTRAL Student Council
(CSC) today urged Thomasians to participate in the campaign to finally secure
approval for the proposed Students’ Code this year, in a forum at the Central
Seminary gym.

“Kailangan nating aminin na hindi priority ng [UST]
administration ‘yung pagpasa ng Students’ Code sa ngayon, kaya kailangan nilang
[maramdaman] na gusto talaga nating maipasa ito ngayong taon,” Central Board
Speaker and Civil Law Student Council President Victor Villanueva said during
the annual Students’ Rights and Welfare (STRAW) Forum.

Villanueva said changes in the administration and CSC
officers yearly were not an excuse for delaying the proposed Student’s Code.
The delays should bring about a sense of urgency, he said.

“We are afraid that once our terms end, the Students’ Code
will go back to square one and we don’t want that to happen. It’s been
happening for many years. It has to be passed this year,” he said.

Villanueva said the passage of the code would result in UST
students becoming responsible and active citizens in the future.

“We should be trained to exercise our discernment, so when
we come out of the University, we are able to exercise the fundamental rights
that we are supposed to exercise as citizens of the Philippines,” he said. “It
is imperative that while we are in the University, we are able to ensure that these
rights are exercised in our academic community.”

Villanueva also said the CSC would have to meet with
University administrators and college deans for final revisions in the code.

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The STRAW Forum, organized by the CSC, aims to raise
awareness among Thomasians on the proposed Students’ Code.

The Students’ Code, formerly the Magna Carta of Students’
Rights when it was first drafted in 2004, covers Thomasians’ responsibilities
and prerogatives in the areas of academics, freedom of expression, information,
 policymaking, organization, and due
process, among others.

Its passage has been postponed several times due to changes
in administration and the University’s Quadricentennial celebration in 2011. It
has gone through the terms of three different rectors: Fr. Ernesto Arceo, O.P.,
Fr. Rolando de la Rosa, O.P., and the incumbent Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, O.P. Roberto
A. Vergara, Jr.

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