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SBA Days ’24 correction sparks outrage; CSC-SBA mitigates backlash

With the recent Facebook post of the College Student Council – School of Business and Accountancy (CSC-SBA), several dolphins expressed their confusion and disappointment with the oversights of the student government during the tabulation process of the SBA Days 2024 competitions.

According to the said post, the CSC-SBA took accountability for the corrections on the final placement of winners in the two non-academic events, Short Film Competition and Professor’s Got Talent.

As per them, the following corrections were rechecked, evaluated, and communicated with the officers-in-charge of the affected events as well as their tabulation committee.

Subsequently, the CSC-SBA apologized for the delay of announcing the changes while still reassuring the studentry that the respective housemasters and point persons involved were informed throughout the process of finalizing the tabulated scores.

Veritas, Honoris react on placement corrections in Short Film

During the college days awarding ceremony last October 2, Veritas and Honoris took first runner-up and second runner-up, respectively.

However, with major changes on the scoreboard, the CSC-SBA finalized Concordia as the first runner-up of the competition, resulting Honoris booting off the ranking. Veritas was knocked down to second runner-up.

In an interview with the affected teams, the two competing teams shared their frustration on the situation.

“Although the process was filled with comments from members of our house that may sound hateful, you [have] to understand the fact that it seemed unprofessional and unethical that awards can be [revoked] or that placement can be [changed],” a representative from the Housemaster of Veritas expressed.

Meanwhile, Housemaster of Honoris Kenneth Cayanan shared his reaction to the corrected results released by the CSC.

“Ayaw pa namin tanggapin ‘yung updated rankings ng house since ‘di pa kami nabibigyan ng transparency report/meeting about sa updated scores.”

Cayanan also added a few details of his direct communication with the event’s Officer-in-Charge, stating after more than a week of reaching out for concerns, he claims to have received no responses on certain issues his team brought up. 

Moreover, as per the Housemaster of Honoris, the student council only announced their plan to hold a face-to-face meeting with the tabulation team to show the updated rankings of the competition last October 11 and 15, in which he claimed has not commenced yet.

As of today, Cayanan awaits the transparency report from the organizers before accepting the updated results.

Volonte, Concordia ‘disappointed’ with CSC-SBA’s delayed action

Despite the new placements of PGT switched the rankings of Concordia and Volonte, the two responded with the same sentiments of dismay on the council’s response to such discrepancies.

In an interview with Volonte’s Housemaster Khyrish Canlas, she expressed her overall understanding of the difficulty of managing the SBA Days, but shared her disappointment with the mistake as it could have been ‘avoided’.

“We appreciate that the College Student Council took responsibility for the corrected competition results. However, we’re a bit disappointed because these errors could have been avoided if the OIC had been more familiar with the ERRs and if the deductions for each house were properly recorded.”

Another representative of Volonte voiced out their experience when asked about the council’s overall transparency during the process of tabulation, claiming it was ‘exhausting’ to settle the concerns with the student council.

“One of the CSC officers mentioned na during awarding, walang point na nadeduct sa ibang houses kaya sila yung naannounce na champion, which was a mistake. So, sabi rin nung officer na yung OIC na daw yung kakausap kung kailan magpapalit ng trophy at marereprint yung certificate. Pero I tried to make sure and asked the OIC na kausapin ng maayos yung other house kase kailangan din nilang malaman kung ano ba talaga yung nangyari,” PGT Point Person of Volonte stated.

Meanwhile, Concordia’s Housemaster Ryenirre Joy Rivera called out the student council for its ‘lack of transparency’.

“CSC-SBA did not even bother talking to me or my co-housemaster, Mr. Jhan Ford, [on] these changes and how they were made. We clearly had no idea at all on how the computations were or how the [scoring] were done for these results to be made now,” Rivera stated.

After sharing initially conflicting responses on the issue of transparency, he further clarified that while there was a communication between the events’ point persons and the council—the CSC allegedly did not elaborate on the matter.

“They only told us through messenger chat that there were changes with the finalized deductions, which was [the] 12 points and overall scores. We even asked how Volonte [became] champions by asking how was the tabulation and overall score sheet computation, but they only responded with ‘12 ang deductions niyo’ with no elaboration or explanation on how it was so.”

As per Rivera, he initially stated that the trophies had not been returned to the council, but later corrected himself after confirming it with the event’s point person. Regardless, Concordia remains adamant that there were no further elaborations for the deductions and final scores.

CSC-SBA answers criticisms with transparency, accountability

In a separate interview with the CSC, Governor Sophia Componion shared that the errors on these two events occurred during the tabulation process.

“While the deductions were properly recorded in the raw score sheets, they were overlooked when the scores were inputted into the excel tabulation. Unfortunately, the tabulation committee missed inputting these deductions, which led to the discrepancies in the final results of the two competitions.”

Adding to this, the incumbent shared that the concerns were immediately relayed to the council upon the conclusion of the college days. When questioned about the delay of almost three weeks since the event, she stated that the council wanted to ensure the results were accurate.

“This process required thorough validation, as we wanted to ensure that the corrections were accurate. Over the course of a few days, we worked closely with the point persons and housemasters of the two affected events to settle the issue internally before releasing the final results.”

Meanwhile, Vice Governor Ashton Calma clarified the concerns on transparency, adding that throughout the process, they maintained clear communication with the different houses. 

“Specifically for the PGT competition, communication started on October 3 and continued up until the issue was fully resolved. During this time, we ensured that the point persons of the houses were shown the tabulation, score sheets, and deductions. Both point persons confirmed that everything was settled before we redistributed the plaques and certificates.”

For short film making, the issue remains unresolved due to the reluctance of Honoris in returning the plaques and certificates.

“…we arranged a face-to-face meeting with them, where they were able to view the tabulation and score sheets. Unfortunately, not all participating houses had the chance to see the updated tabulation in person, though we did inform them of the changes, and they have since returned their plaques and certificates—except for the House of Honoris, whose participants have expressed reluctance to return theirs. We are still working on this.”

Componion and Calma alleviated fears of the possible changes in the overall ranking.

“The results and placements for all other competitions, as well as the overall rankings, were accurate from the beginning. We are positive that the corrected results are now final and reflect the true outcomes of SBA Days.”

This is a developing story.

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