A FIRE THAT KEEPS ON BURNING

SDG 16 (PEACE, JUSTICE, AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS) REPORT
Academic Year 2023-2024

The advocacy of the Lasallian community to achieve SDG 16 shows that the efforts of DLSU to promote justice, peace, and inclusivity can be described through a metaphor: a fire that keeps on burning. With this, the elements that keep this fire burning are rooted in the efforts sparked by students, faculty members, administration and non-teaching personnel, etc. The programs of DLSU on promoting SDG 16 aim to be as inclusive as possible, as the community’s diversity appears to be expanding each year, reminding everyone of the university’s well-known Safe Space Policy, that promotes respect for all, regardless of one’s age, gender or gender reassignment, sexual orientation, religion, disability, nationality, etc.

The discussion to promote the building of peaceful institutions and communities that are founded by peace, justice, and inclusivity does not seem to cease within the Lasallian community, as the academic year of 2023-2024 would consist of various activities for students and by students, encouraging enriching discussions on inclusivity. Seminars would be conducted regularly on the foundations of SDG 16, with the most notable talk series being the Pantay Lecture Series, organized by the Lasallian Center for Inclusion, Diversity, and Well-being (LCIDWell), wherein discussions on gender diversity, social inclusion, and political issues related to such would be given by guests within DLSU, and sometimes even guests from other universities; an example being a Pantay Lecture given by UP Diliman’s Dr. Marie Aubrey J. Villaceran, who gave the talk Role of Academic Institutions in Promoting Gender and Development.

There truly is no shortage when it comes to the promotion of SDG 16 within the academic community, and the same awareness can be said for the faculty and operations of DLSU. Every year, faculty and staff of DLSU go through a training program called the Gender Sensitivity and Safe Spaces Policy (GS-SSP), to inform campus workers on issues regarding gender equality, wherein they will eventually be oriented on the university’s Safe Space Policy. The institution in DLSU heading such programs for campus workers is the Council for Inclusion, Diversity, and Well-Being (CIDW), who serve as the university’s policy makers and program developers regarding the university’s efforts to promote SDG 16.

DLSU’s efforts to promote the 16th SDG does not end within the Lasallian community, for the institution believes that the progressive ideas discussed within the campus would also be beneficial to other communities, hence why outreach programs are held by different colleges that are centred on promoting the SDG. An example of this would be when the faculty and students of the Literature Department of CLA came to visit Southville 5a Integrated National High School in Binan, Laguna, to share their ideas on human rights, justice, and gender inclusivity, by giving junior high school students poetry workshops. In these literary workshops, the students of Southville 5a were taught to express themselves through composing literary pieces related to the topics discussed.

AY 23-24 is merely a small piece of the Lasallian community’s ever-burning fire to help achieve SDG 16, and there truly is no shortage in the efforts to do such, whether it is in the student body, the faculty and staff, etc. The discussions, lectures, and programs within and outside campus related to promoting the SDG keep the good fire burning, allowing ideas of inclusivity, justice, and peace, to spread within and outside of campus.