By Kristhel Hannah B. Baluarte, News Editor
First Printed on Vol. XCI No. 1. July 30, 2019.
Silliman University Student Government (SUSG) highlights transparency in fees and publication of official documents on a post on their official Facebook page, this S.Y. 2019 -2020.
SUSG President Aprille Roselle Vince Juanillo said that transparency has been one of the SUSG’s biggest thrusts even during their campaign period. A delivery of service with certain transparency. Being transparent is their responsibility and placing the students’ trust into.
In line with the SUSG’s aim for transparency and Digital Empowerment, an online platform called “LIHOK” was implemented, it is for students to be updated about the SUSG’s progress throughout the year. “What we [SUSG] noticed is that most people don’t really see that the Student Government is doing anything unless it’s a physical thing because people are visual so we think it’s right for students to know what the SUSG is doing even in the process of it,” said SUSG President Aprille Roselle Vince Juanillo.
TRANSPARENCY IN FEES
According to the SUSG’s first LIHOK report, they are seeking for transparency in fees from the SU Administration. Juanillo said the intention is for the students to know where their money is going and what the SU Admin is doing with the money. Moreover, Juanillo said they might be the first administration who can get a copy of the breakdown of the miscellaneous fees because the past administrations only got a schedule of fees and not a thorough breakdown of it, for the reason that the Business and Finance does not have a system that presents it the way the SUSG wanted it to be delineated wit
The SU Admin is on the process of checking its validity and singling out the files from the entire roster of expenses, which will be then handed to the SUSG. The SUSG will go fully transparent in presenting the data when given by the SU Admin. Juanillo added that “[it is] going to be a public document … so we know if we’re either underpaying or overpaying something.”
PUBLICIZING OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS
Last July 10, the SUSG published the order documents from the Secretary of Department of Labor and Employment, Silvestre H. Bello III, concerning the labor dispute between SUFA and SU Admin.
“We gave both parties the opportunity to give out facts they are willing to share to the public, that they think the public should know…We did not touch the data they gave us, so how they were placed there is exactly how they put it there,” Juanillo explained.
The goal of distributing it to the public was to have a better informed studentry and to provide substantial knowledge of the events around the university. Full-disclosure of necessary information will be carried out by the SUSG.
Besides these aforementioned, the SUSG is continuing their drive for transparency on multiple platforms: zero waste advocacy, student assistance, inclusivity in advance gender equality, improvement of school WiFi and other matters, all of which are officially posted on their first LIHOK report.
