To USSC: Use the Power of Four

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By Jed Asaph Cortes

Students who have been here since 2009 could recall the start of a campaign. This campaign was to correct the student government system of VSU. It was also the time when people thought the Amaranth (the one who started the campaign) and council (the student government) couldn’t work together.

Amaranth has tried since 2009 to work with the student government. Some officers were willing, some took it offensively. However, the present leadership seems to be open-minded about taking suggestions from the Amaranth.

With USSC president Gerald Rivera on the lead, our student government has shown its willingness to change the system: a quite complicated parliamentary system of council officers, arrangements and fees which can be simplified. When made simple, it will be more effective.

The new Council Officers with the Amaranth sat down one afternoon in March to talk about correcting misconceptions and addressing school problems. Together, we also figured out a way to rearrange our government system. It’s called the Power of Four.

What does this mean?

The Power of Four is just a name for a special system of student government that we can use in VSU. Similar government systems exist in other universities, Ateneo deManila for example.

Since VSU has many colleges under it, all of them will have four officers each. It works this way, we will have what we call as the Big For. This Big Four stands for the four USSC officers: The President, Vice-President, the Secretary-General, and the Treasurer.  Under them are the College Fours (C-4s), with the same positions.

Our present system is quite complicated; we have lots of officers everywhere. The more the merrier? Nope. This actually prevents the job from getting done. That’s why we need only enough. In this case, four.

All these officers will be voted at large, meaning the students will vote for the USSC officers. This is unlike the present system: the CSSC Presidents vote among themselves as to who will become the USSC president, VP and so on. We find democracy missing here: we don’t directly choose our leaders.

But the power of four will be different. When we directly elect our leaders, it means we’re more involved in decision-making. It in turn makes them more accountable, which in turn again will push them to be more responsible. More projects, better government.  Better government, more involvement. It’s a cycle of successful leadership, people participation, and effective governance.

The amaranth and the USSC share the same desire: that the system will be more effective than ever. There are still many questions about this plan, but these will smoothen out if the students are willing to discuss with the USSC and Amaranth. We have yet to prove the effectiveness of this system.

Since the USSC promised a real Constitutional Convention to correct last year’s “mock” Con-Con (it was indeed a mockery of the USSC Constitution), the Amaranth is hopeful that the delegates will favorably consider the Power of Four.

The council officers have expressed their interest in changing the system. Will they go the extra mile to really change it? We hope it’s not lip service. We have yet to see what they will do this year. Let us all keep a watchful eye.

The power of Four may not be a perfect system. However, many schools work well with it. It is theoretically better than what we currently have. Testing this is better than not changing at all. It’s not really much about whether we can do it or not. The real issue is, are we willing to do it?

Students who have been here since 2009 could recall the start of a campaign. And until we see the change we need, we will not stop it.