The UP Diliman (UPD) University Student Council (USC) has a long-standing history of militancy to meet the demands of its constituency. But the fight becomes a harder struggle with dwindling student participation.
“Maraming sinasakripisyo yung members ng konseho dahil sa pagliit ng manpower,” said USC Chairperson Mary Sunshine Reyes. “May mga council members na hirap nang makapasok sa klase para mag-disseminate ng information, kasama na yung lack of funds.”
On May 23 to 24, UPD students are set to select the next USC who will lead the student body in its campaigns on pressing university and national concerns. But with the decreasing numbers in voter turnout and unfilled positions, the struggle becomes an even steeper climb.
Names on the Ballot
Since 2000, there has been an average of almost 10,000 students who miss the student council elections, with voter turnout continuously decreasing.
Even after the university reopened its campus after the pandemic, the downward trend of voter turnout continued (see sidebar 1). Last year’s special elections saw the lowest figure with 8.29 percent. Despite this dip, Reyes was elected chairperson after an initial triumph of the “abstain vote.” But even then, she was only able to eke out the abstentions by a 726-point margin.
The polls were moved online in 2009 to ease manual election burden. But for 24 years, the voter turnout has never surpassed half of the student population, save for the 2015 elections when it reached 51.24 percent. To this day, it remains the highest turnout. By 2021—the first remote elections—the polls reached 46.18 percent turnout, only to drop by more than 10 percentage points in 2022.
For Reyes, this only shows that there is a challenge for the USC and local college councils to engage with the entire student body.
“Kahit mag-conduct tayo ng maraming event, if it doesn’t match yung needs and wants ng students, walang pupunta dun,” she said. “So ang ginawa namin ay nagkaroon kami ng series of consultations, kami ang pumunta sa kanila.”
Students at the Forefront
But student leaders themselves appear to also have less engagement with campus politics.
The incumbent council is composed of 17 committees. Under the USC Constitution, the 12 councilors are supposed to serve as heads of such panels, but the shortage of members makes this impossible.
As a result of the vacancies in the councilor posts, seven out of the 17 committees are currently being led by college representatives.
The 2023 special elections were conducted to fill vacancies in the council. But even with such temporary measures, the USC was short of one councilor, and eventually reduced to nine after the resignation of Alvin James Magno and Chloe Antonio.
Since 2000, there has been a decrease of students bidding for the councillorship (see sidebar 2).
While the figure rises around every two years, the temporary increase to 32 candidates in 2018 saw the last of this. By the next elections, the number hovered around 15.
But the 2023 elections is a special case, with abstentions seemingly the primary response of voters to sexual harassment allegations floated around certain poll contenders.
Out of 17 candidates, only eight made it through after the rest were outvoted by abstentions. And only eight of the 26 academic units had an elected representative to the USC, forcing the remaining officers to take on more tasks.
“Na-stretch too thin talaga ang USC pero mandate namin yun,” Reyes said. “Kapag may mga naiiwan na headships, kami na lang yung nag-he-head nun, though hindi siya formal headship.”
With too much to juggle, the USC has assembled a task force composed of around 50 student volunteers. But the struggle of mobilizing the USC does not end here, as they also face financial burdens due to lagging bureaucracy.
Only in special cases, such as the systemwide General Assembly of Student Councils, do the USC receive money in advance. This only gives an additional hurdle for the council, despite being a student institution.
“May budget requests pero ilang buwan talaga siya bago ma-release tapos minsan hindi pa ma-approve,” Reyes said. “Ilang layers talaga siya ng bureaucracy kaya ang ending ay kailangan naming mag-shell out muna from our own pockets.”
Uniting the Community
The USC remains hopeful and active in community engagements, Reyes said. It shows, according to her, that the community must ally together.
And while all efforts are part of their job, the decreasing student participation, in addition to the funding gaps, makes their advocacies an uphill battle.
“There are so many issues na hindi naman kailangan maging issue kung pinakinggan nila ang komunidad. Sa dinami-dami ng issues on a national level, dinagdagan pa nila ng mga problems,” Reyes said.
Without enough help and participation of the studentry in the next May USC elections, the problem of UPD’s thinning defenses against such concerns is seen to persist.
“There are so many issues surrounding the university, and we cannot champion our campaigns without a stronger student movement,” Reyes said. “Hinihikayat namin ang lahat na sumali sa pagbibigay ng effort. Hindi lang USC and local college councils ang kumikilos, kundi ang buong student body.” ●
