CENTRAL Student Council (CSC) officers have reported some progress in the drafting of the Students’ Code, which has dragged on for years, last Jan. 26.
The draft will be sent to the Office of the Vice Rector for Academic Affairs for review by the end of the month, CSC officers said in a forum on the Students’ Code during the week-long Students’ Rights and Welfare event, which was held until Jan. 29.
Central Board Speaker and Faculty of Arts and Letters Student Council President Jan Dominic Castro said he was hoping the code would be subjected to a referendum before the student body.
“It is not solely intended to raise awareness but to encourage everyone to guard their rights as vital stakeholders of this centuries-old institution,” Castro said in his speech at Plaza Mayor.
During the previous CSC administration, the draft reached the Rector’s desk and received numerous revisions, mostly in Article II, which deals with the academic rights of students.
CSC President Anna Mariz Mangalili said the current draft received fewer revisions this year after numerous corrections in the previous administration’s draft.
“Ang kailangan is ma-increase ‘yung knowledge sa students para pagdating ng botohan, hindi na tayo magtatagal doon kasi alam [ng administration] ang insights ng students,” Mangalili said in an interview with the Varsitarian.
Both Mangalili and Castro said they were determined to pass the code before their terms end.
Former CSC president Lorraine Taguiam warned that the code would not survive without a clamor from students. “If you want a new policy to pass, you have to create the clamor from the beneficiaries,” Taguiam said.
Students must discard the notion that the Students’ Code, formerly known as the Magna Carta of UST Students, was only for student activists, she added, emphasizing that it would benefit both the students and the administration.
The Students’ Code was first drafted in 2004, containing provisions on academic rights, freedom of expression, the right to information, the right to participate in policy-making, the right to organize, and the right to due process, among others. Roy Abrahmn D.R. Narra
