Years of student leadership experience brought the lone Central Student Council (CSC) auditor aspirant James Ceñido waging for compliance policies in his platforms.

As the University slowly transitioned to in-person classes, the third-year Commerce and Business Administration student highlighted the cruciality of student leaders in promoting students' growth.

"We are bridging the gap* doon sa mga pagkukulang, yung mga pangangailangan ng mga studyante* towards *sa *admins," he shared with *TomasinoWeb *in an online interview.

"We will be the ones lobbying the policies, *yung mga *important projects *na kailangan ng *Thomasian community especially [since] we are gradually transitioning now to face-to-face [classes]," he added.

In amplifying and magnifying student governance

Thomasians remained to be the main player in the realization of the lone candidate's platforms as he proposed student-centered movements.

Communication will still be a priority between the council and the student body as Ceñido aims to expand the present system of coordinating concerns through his platform "Amplify."

He proposed a semestral evaluation of the council's performance, waiting for further dialogues with his future fellow officers and the central board, with a primary goal of getting a step closer to the student body for an effective communication.

"We would be keeping our lines open as [what we've been doing] for the past years. Yung goal naman nito is [to] get in touch with the students, yung mga pangangailangan nila," he said.

Ceñido added that he would continue the ongoing practices of the council, specifically on the operation of the committees.

"Mas palalawigin natin yung information dissemination in a way na nakakarating siya sa mas maraming students, in a way na mas nararamdaman siya ng students," he said.

Meanwhile, he explained that his platform "Magnify" would be a unified manual involving all auditors from the local student councils (LSCs).

He claimed that it was time to capacitate all auditors given that the same course of action had already been achieved with the president, secretary, and public relations officer's (PRO) divisions along with his previous experience as the Chief-of-Staff implementing the same act.

The said manual then involves financial and logistics aspects and strategic objectives like the key performance index and result areas of all councils to check the performance of the council and set projects accordingly.

"As compliance officers din, we would be compiling and filtering yung mga strategic objectives, key performace index (KPI), and yung result areas ng bawat LSC and the CSC in a way na it would be easier for us to check yung mga performances ng [student councils]," the auditor bet said, adding that this act would ensure the progress of projects and if they were being implemented properly.

With this, Ceñido said that if elected as auditor, he would not solely focus on the financial aspect of his work, but furthered on extending this plan to the auditors of the LSCs.

"Aside from the financial and [the logistics], ma-empower pa natin yung work nila and mas maging relevant* pa rin sa *Thomasian student body," he said.

On conquering woes

But waging an election campaign came with its share of challenges for Ceñido --- one of which was the proposed Constitutional revisions, saying that it would not be an "easy job" and citing numerous attempts from past CSC administrations.

*"Hindi naman kami yung *major na may say diyan. Ang major na may task diyan ay our (CSC) President, our (CSC) Vice president kung sakali. But of course, we would go hand in hand with this," the auditor bet said.

The transition period from online to hybrid learning also came as a challenge for Ceñido, claiming that it would be a hard feat as the Thomasian community expects more from the candidates, especially for this term.

"Hindi biro pa rin ang pagta-transition, but I do know naman and I believe *din *with my fellow EPs *na kakayanin namin yung mga *[ways to transition] na kailangan namin ayusin," he said.

When asked how he would overcome these obstacles, Ceñido mentioned his Constitutional mandate such as checking the compliance of committees, the effectiveness of projects, and how to further improve them if the need arises.

"At the same time, we would want to ensure better communication with the admins and with the Thomasian student body."