The school year began with a virtually empty University Student Council (USC), with no university-wide positions filled. With no officers save for college representatives the past election had effectively crippled the USC’s ability to conduct its projects and assist sectors. This, amid the relentless pursuit of the administration to commercialize academic spaces and the declining student participation, proved a difficult year for a USC that could only be described as a skeleton crew.

But even after the special elections held in October 2024—which saw a 37.13% turnout, the highest since 2021—ten councilor posts were still unfilled, showing the hold of the abstain vote against candidates. These vacancies incapacitated the USC from performing its sectoral duties and from invigorating the studentry, resulting in several delayed projects, some of which fell short for organizers and participants alike. The USC’s lackluster performance bled into different aspects of its term, including its sectoral thrusts, conduct of events, and attempts to address the declining student participation in the campus.

Shared Responsibilities

An almost empty USC earlier this year highlighted its lack of manpower to execute its mandate and projects, forcing local college councils to fill in the gaps until after the special elections. For college councils, this meant having to take the mantle of welcoming freshmen in the university, as the council’s limited manpower blunted its efforts to initiate a university-wide welcoming assembly.

“Franz [Beltran] and I were pushed to take up roles and responsibilities of some of the committees or we merged responsibilities of some with the others,” said incumbent USC chairperson Sean Latorre.

To expand their capacities, the council opened the USC Taskforce for volunteer students to lead events such as UP Fair and Bantay Boto. The USC also conducted student consultations through Iskonsultasyon with several student groups within the university, such as dormers, athletes, and student journalists. 

The delayed start of the council’s operations, however, also pushed back their major events, such as UP Fair, which was hounded by technical difficulties and issues with the event’s nature as a protest. This led many fairgoers and students to criticize the event’s watered-down advocacies, and while the USC acknowledged the fair’s lapses and flaws in its execution, Latorre said that the event still achieved its goal of heightening socio-civic awareness.

Some events like Alternative Classroom Learning Experience (ACLE), despite being hailed as one of USC’s successes according to Latorre, left many organizers dismayed due to its rushed schedule that saw various organizations backing out as a result. “Late nabigay [yung primer ng ACLE], one week lang binigay sa orgs to send their ACLE proposals. Then it was expected [na] makapag-secure na kami ng venues and all during the Holy Week,” said Vly Villegas, president of the UP Academic League of Chemical Engineering Students.

These events would prove to be litmus tests in assessing the performance of a USC marked by its vacancies, which bled through their efficiencies in communicating and addressing the sectoral concerns in UP and broader communities.

Sectoral Relations

Such vacancies impaired the USC’s duties to connect the studentry with marginalized sectors. Though there were attempts, rifts among the student movement, delays, and a lack of reaching out limited the council in genuinely helping its allied sectors in UP.

As this year’s USC saw the grip of commercialization around the campus tighten as DiliMall opened last year, internal dynamics muddled the USC’s attempts to consolidate the UP community. Despite subtle divisions, they have achieved some level of success, according to Samahang Manininda ng UP Campus President Narry Hernandez.

“Dapat hindi nagkakaroon ng paksyon sa pagtulong–iba yung partido nito, iba yung partido ng kabila,” Hernandez said. This factionalism also manifested during the 2024 special elections that saw different groups race for endorsements from Hernandez and allied sectors. Hernandez also saw the difficulties of USC’s attempts to consolidate its sectoral forces and its studentry, which has much room to improve.

But the USC made sure to continue building on what the past term has done to aid the UP Not for Sale Network through helping vendors and stallholders’ legal matters and proceedings. The USC also bolstered its connections with the maninindas through its Community Rights and Welfare committee by helping them resist the thrust of commercialization and protecting their livelihoods, according to Latorre.

Portions of the USC’s sectoral thrusts were also successful as they assisted the urban poor in recovering from the Daang Tubo and Balara fires that torched their homes, as the USC launched IskoOps to donate goods to victims of the fires. 

But while other efforts were compromised due to internal dynamics, other sectors may have been left out of the USC’s priorities. For UP Muslim Students Association President Hailoden Salainto, the USC had “no attempt to communicate or strengthen the relationship with the Muslim sector” during their term for their campaign for representation. Adding on to the issue of lacking student spaces, Muslims have endured lacking spaces for worship on campus, which led them to rent Alcantara Hall for most of March during Ramadan.

These inactions may be attributed to the USC’s vacancies, bleeding into even the requests of sectors themselves. As indigenous Molbog from Palawan arrived in the USC’s office in April, plans to assist them have been in stasis due to “difficulties in handling various initiatives,” said Latorre. They had requested to conduct a forum to raise awareness of their struggles, but were left shorthanded.

Starting Anew

Several unresolved challenges from the present USC’s term are set to persist and will likely confront the council’s next set of officers.

“We weren't able to fully address that not all committees were maximized to their full capacity,” said Latorre. The USC’s Committee on Legal Issues and Concerns, for one, was underutilized by the USC, which could have been beneficial in de-escalating tensions in the front lines of mobilizations in the past year.

Declining student participation remains a common theme within past terms of the USC, as declining voter turnout and political apathy dot the campus grounds. But for most students, this starts with feeling the presence of the USC.

Such issues still loom for the next set of officers, who will inherit a reputation less than ideal for some sectors and a portion of the studentry, tasked with invigorating its constituents and uplifting the state of campus politics. Such is a timeless challenge that succeeding terms must face, and must solve, through the USC’s projects and the student-centric services of each committee.  ●