CSGA Hopes to Improve Communication Next Semester

For Chaminade’s Student Government Association President Josephine “Fina” Iose, continually improving the line of communication between students, faculty, and CSGA as a whole continues to be a top priority for the board going into the next semester.

“Within the last two years, everything has been progressing, there’s been more communication, more involvement from the staff and faculty and advisors and then there’s also been a lot of input from both sides,” said the Psychology major. “So when we have meetings, or when other boards have meetings, the advisors would sit in and then be given a chance to speak on how we can better this event or how we can better addressing this to the student body.”

As CSGA president, Iose has many responsibilities and tasks, from facilitating board meetings within the CSGA’s various committees and boards to representing the entire student body on the Board of Regents or provost meetings.

However, CSGA has had missteps throughout the semester as the students balance their school, work, and personal lives.

“There was always some kind of miscommunication, especially from our end,” Iose said. “There was always a point where, as individuals forgot to send out emails, or communicate that this person will be there instead of us for meetings.”

Although they have done events like having a Fall Meet and Greet and a first-ever town hall, communicating and letting students know about CSGA, it is still something they look toward improving going into the next semester.

Vice President Reina Abegayle Pagtakhan also wants to help improve CSGA’s overall goal to help students feel comfortable in sharing their concerns.

“Not every student feels comfortable bring up their own concerns to faculty when they arise,” said Pagtakhan, a Forensics Sciences major. “Not only part of the senate to voice out this kind of things, it’s also their job and the entire executive board’s job to kind of encourage students to feel more comfortable with bringing up these issues.”

Along with helping to improve communications, Pagtakhan wants to make sure that she is there to support her senators as the senate chair, from doing checkins, providing guidance, using her campus resources to help them as much as she can.

Within the CSGA Senate, there are six committees that student senators focus on, and range from Academic Affairs to Student Life and Welfare to Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. However, letting students know that both CSGA and Senate exist remains another big goal for them.

“A big goal for all of us is to continue letting people know that there is a senate as well as there is CSGA,” the 20-year-old said. “My senators are currently bringing up the idea to do another vlog series for people to know who the senators are as well as getting the senators getting connected with campus partners.”

Alongside that, the Academic Affairs Committee is also in touch with the registrar’s office to improve Canvas and expand the curriculum of CUH 100 to “benefit the first-year experience for students.”

To find out more about CSGA stop by its office in Ching Hall next to the Vi & Paul Loo Student Center, follow on Instagram, check out the page on the Chaminade website, or email at [email protected].

Chaminade’s CSGA: 

Advisor: Joseph Granado, Director of Student Activities and Leadership

President: Josephine Iose

Executive Vice President: Reina Abegayle Pagtakhan

Director of Finance: Timothy Johnson

Director of Programming: Pamela Oda

Head of Internal Affairs: Celine Mesiona-Perez

Head of Communications: Montserrat Lanfranco

Speaker of the House: Adora Erguiza