Tag: BOTOmasino 2015_772

WITH the social media, the youth have become even more vocal and critical. This is underscored in the coming Central Student Council (CSC) election which should present a new opportunity for Thomasians to articulate their concerns about the quality of student government leadership.

The Central Comelec has come up with the hashtag #USTHalalan2015 to encourage students to take to Twitter and voice their concerns and pose questions to the candidates.

THE LONE accredited political party Lakas ng Diwang Tomasino (Lakasdiwa) will go against independent candidates in this year’s campus polls.

Eyeing the presidency are incumbent Central Student Council (CSC) secretary and fourth-year Clinical Pharmacy student Rosevielentine Rosales and third-year Management Accounting student Anna Mariz Mangalili. Rosales runs under the banner of Lakasdiwa while Mangalili, the incumbent assistant secretary of Accountancy Student Council, is an independent.

Incumbent CSC auditor Patricia Alexis Canoza (independent), a second-year Tourism student, and incumbent Architecture Student Council Vice President John Louis Tingzon (Lakasdiwa), a fourth-year Architecture student, are running for vice president.

THE UST Central Commission on Elections (Comelec) is set to revise the UST Students’ Election Code (USEC) 2011, which would pattern the organization after the country's election body.

Central Comelec Vice Chairperson Raymond Naguit said the Central Comelec has already started drafting the new students’ election code, which shall be called the Thomasian Election’s Code of 2015.

“Probably, next school year, we will be presenting the draft to the Central Board and once it is already approved by the Central Board, then that is the time that it will be implemented,” Naguit told the Varsitarian.

Specific changes

OUTGOING officials of Central Student Council (CSC) are confident they would leave behind accomplishments consistent with their mission to uphold the rights and interests of students.

CSC president Ina Vergara said the council managed to achieve their seven-point agenda this academic year but admitted their performance could have been better.

“There’s no perfect administration and we gave our utter best. I still want to do a lot, but I think the next batch would hopefully sustain what we have started this year. There’s always room for improvement,” she said.

Despite the promises and various efforts of the council, the Students’ Code still remains ten years overdue since the initial draft in 2004.

LOCAL student council officer Anna Mariz Mangalili is determined to prove that she can take over the Central Student Council’s (CSC) presidency even without the backing of a political party.

Mangalili, a third year Management Accounting student, is the incumbent assistant secretary of the AMV-College of Accountancy Student Council.

She said her candidacy would give Thomasians a choice, considering that Lakas ng Diwang Tomasino was the only political party accredited by the Central Commission on Elections this year.

IS CENTRAL Student Council (CSC) secretary Rosvielentine Rosales ready for the presidency?

A fourth-year Clinical Pharmacy student, Rosales insists she is ready to take on a bigger responsibility as she vies for the top post of the highest governing student body in the University.

“Being part of the CSC made me realize a lot of things and molded me not only to be a great leader but [also] a great person,” the standard bearer of Lakas ng Diwang Tomasino said in an interview.

Seeing herself as a “motivator,” Rosales believes that a great leader should produce other future great leaders.

FOCUSING on the core of “Thomasian leadership,” Lakas ng Diwa Tomasino (Lakasdiwa) bet John Louis Tingzon believes his experience as the College of Architecture Student Council's vice president has prepared him well for the bigger task ahead.

Tingzon, a fourth-year Architecture student, is running for Central Student Council (CSC) vice president. For him, his experiences in his local student council will be his advantage.

“Since dati na akong vice president from local [student council], ginawa [ko] tinaas ko ‘yung sarili ko [to] Central Student Council. Dinala ko lang ‘yung principle ko, same pa din,” Tingzon said. “Naging bigger picture lang siya, naging mas malaki ‘yung gusto kong hawakan and ‘yung service naman ‘yun talaga ‘yung nasa puso ko.”

A YEAR after its separation from the Faculty of Engineering, the Institute of Information and Computing Sciences (IICS) is preparing its own constitution and student council.

A draft of the IICS constitution, which was adopted from the 2006 Engineering Constitution, is now under plebiscite to determine if the institute could hold its first-ever student council elections.

According to Engineering Student Council President Nielsen Ignacio, the Central Board of Student Auxiliary (CBSA), which consists of all Engineering and Information and Computing Sciences class presidents, advocated the drafting of a new constitution for the IICS last academic year.

FOLLOWING a series of low voter turnout in the previous years, the UST Central Commission on Elections (Comelec) utilized social media to reportedly increase students’ participation in this year’s Central Student Council (CSC) election.

According to chairperson Julia Antoinette Unarce, the Central Comelec launched this year’s elections with the theme, “Eleksiyong Tomasino Para sa Mas Pinatibay na Konseho.”

“Comelec is for voter education,” Unarce said. “We have to go out of our way and think out of the box to reach out to the Thomasians [para] bumoto nang tama.”

Unarce explained the social media campaign involved statement photos and the Twitter hashtag #USTHalalan2015.

The Central Comelec urged students to vote.

THE INDIFFERENCE and general lack of interest of many Thomasians limited the voter turnout in the Central Student Council (CSC) election to just barely two-thirds of the student population for the past eight years.

According to data from the Central Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Registrar’s Office, voter turnout last year was only 64.21 percent, a little higher than the 61.93 percent in 2013.

In 2012, voter turnout stood at 64.27 percent, slightly lower than in 2011, when there was a 64.5 percent turnout.

The years 2008, 2009, and 2010 had the lowest voter turnout in the past eight years, recording 58.86 percent, 54.71 percent and 59.21 percent, respectively.