As shrinking student engagement and critical UP issues loom, the system-wide 57th convention of the General Assembly of Student Councils (GASC) will be held on August 15 to 17 at UP Tacloban (UPTac) to discuss the needs of the student body and select the 41st student regent.
Mandated to uphold the rights of 50,000 UP students and engage in multisectoral campaigns, the student regent is the sole representative of the studentry to the Board of Regents (BOR), the highest governing and policy-making body of the university.
But above all, eyes now gravitate toward the urgency for the next regent to address the dwindling student participation in university politics and pressing student concerns such as the lack of student spaces and basic student services.
“The student regent needs to reach out to all students. Such [a] relationship between the [regent] and the students needs to be invigorated and empowered,” said outgoing Student Regent Iya Trinidad in a text exchange with the Collegian.
The selection process starts at the local college councils, which submit their nominees for student regent. If they accept, a nominee can be supported by their constituent unit after deliberation.
The final list of nominees and the units that nominated them are Carla Ac-ac (UP Los Baños), Geraldine Balingit (UPLB College of Agriculture and Food Sciences), Francesca Mariae Duran (UP Diliman and UP Mindanao), Paul Lachica (UPTac), and Rachel Velez (UPLB College of Veterinary Medicine).
Welcoming the 41st student regent is UP’s waning student participation in university and national issues, reflecting a scattered student body. In Diliman alone, the recurrent pattern of declining voter turnout and fewer candidates in the previous election remains.
“Dapat tingnan ng susunod na student regent kung ano ba talaga ang nag-hi-hinder sa mga students to participate sa affairs ng university,” Jonabelle Serafica, chairperson of the UP Diliman College of Social Work and Community Development Student Council, told the Collegian.
The next student regent must also establish better consolidation of calls across the UP system through regular consultation with its constituents and local councils, while also watching out for the upcoming 2025 UP budget, said Trinidad.
With the government appointee-dominated board continuing its habit of ignoring the three sectoral (student, faculty, and staff) regents, the next student regent must reinforce the sectors’ collective scrutiny of university affairs if community problems such as the rise of corporate-leased DiliMall are to be addressed.
Along with the struggle to monitor university decisions and organize the student body, national issues such as the nearing 2025 midterm elections, tensions in the West Philippine Sea, and threats to academic freedom, await the 41st student regent.
“The next student regent has a lot on their hands,” said Trinidad. “There sure [are] going to be a lot of issues, both in the university and outside, that they would have to be proactive about.”
The five nominees will present their vision paper at the student council summit, followed by an unmoderated caucus, where constituent universities and autonomous units will whittle the pool down to three nominees. These three will then undergo a final deliberation where the student regent-elect and two alternate nominees will ultimately be selected. ●
First published in the July 22, 2024 print edition of the Collegian.