by Roxanne May Suyu
In accordance to the advice of the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) given last July 2015, the UST Chemical Engineering Society amended its constitution and officially ratified the changes last April 21, 2016.
The Office of Student Affairs (OSA) advised all student organizations to change their structure parallel to that of corporations and also to adjust as the implementation of the K-12 program will affect the students.
The initial draft of the amended constitution was made accessible online to the students through the UST ChES official page last April 14, 2016. ChES officers opened the table for comments and suggestions on some necessary changes made on the articles of the constitution. As for the ratification period, ChES conducted a room-to-room presentation of the proposed amendment of the constitution last April 19-21. Out of 643, 469 members participated in the oral plebiscite and only 1 disagreed to ratify. All revisions were approved by more than two-thirds of the student body thus leading it to its official approval on April 21.
One notable amendment made is the structure of the executive board and their respective duties and responsibilities on Articles 4, 5 and 6. The vision of the organization for the next five years was also made more specific on Article 2. On Article 7, the chair and the vice-chair persons of the committees will be replaced by the AVP or Assistant Vice Presidents. Also Article 8 was modified so that the AVP for External Affairs will be the official representative of ChES to PIChE or Philippine Institute of Chemical Engineers. Lastly, Article 16 was added as a clause regarding the adjustments made because of the K-12 Program.
“Para sa akin, huge step for the org na ma-revise yung constitution kasi naging maayos and naging solid yung consti. Ang constitution kasi yan yung standing ground ng org. Yan yung foundation ng org. Kailangan ng constitution lalo pa ngayon at paparating yung K-12. With the revised constitution, tiwala kami na magiging maayos ang ChES for the years to come.” Jorge Ochoa, outgoing UST-ChES Public Relations Officer said after the official ratification.
