Observe. Hypothesize. Test. Conclude.
One might strike down this depiction of a scientist’s work as overly simplistic, but since time immemorial, these four actions have defined what it means to arrive at new scientific knowledge. The scientific method continues to be the path scientists take in their search for truth.
In the Ateneo, however, scientists have had to battle a threat to this time-tested procedure. Students from the School of Science and Engineering (SOSE), especially the biology majors, have found themselves in the face of science laboratories seriously limiting the tests they can perform on their hypotheses, due to grave concerns over the funding and maintenance of Ateneo laboratories.
High-maintenance
The fume hoods in Ateneo’s biology labs characterize much of the complaints raised against some of the school’s lab facilities: they are broken, malfunctioning, and—in their current state—not of much use. Fume hoods are lab ventilation equipment that serve as protection from hazardous gases that arise from lab work.
But that’s just the beginning; a number of other lab equipment are in need of attention. For biology, two other examples are the broken refrigerated centrifuge and carbon dioxide incubator. Repairing the centrifuge would take around Php 70,000; it would cost even more for the incubator.
Other SOSE departments face this similar problem in varying degrees. Physics Lecturer Johanna Mae Indias says that for her department, some equipment need repair or replacement too, such as the spectroscope and the photonics lab desktop.
She also says, “Most of the heavy equipment in the materials science lab don’t actually work—the ones we got from Hitachi. Some worked for a while, but most of them now need repair.”
She says, however, that the Hitachi equipment were all no longer in pristine condition when they arrived. The equipment were acquired for free; Ateneo just had to pay for the shipping.
Regardless of these shortcomings in the Physics labs, though, Indias does not think it’s such a big problem for her department. She explains, for one, that Physics uses less expendables than Biology or Chemistry.
‘A matter of space’
Indias agrees, however, that the Biology Department faces greater lab challenges due to the sheer amount of students that they have.
Based on data from the Registration Committee’s website, Biology majors outnumber Physics majors by around 6.3 to 1 (380 vs. 60 students).
This fact compounds Atenean biologists’ woes; their steadily growing population in campus is resulting into a lack of space for their course-required activities such as thesis research and experiments.
“The last labs that were built were the [Science Education Complex] (SEC) labs in 1998,” explains SOSE Dean Dr. Fabian Dayrit. “If you calculate the space that we have, [it] hasn’t increased [since then].”
Dr. Merab Chan, Chair of the Biology Department, says that there’s already a proposal to raise both SEC-B and SEC-C by two floors, but that may not be enough. Other science departments are also interested in additional space, and will immediately claim the rooms for themselves once extensions have been finished.
Outward venturing
Another concern is the case of Ateneo science majors who’ve had to approach their personal contacts from outsider labs just so they can carry out the experiments required by their course.
This becomes an issue as the situation illustrates how off-campus facilities are seemingly superseding the school’s labs in the very purpose they are supposed to have for the students.
“It’s quite problematic that while you study here—while you carry the name of Ateneo—you have [your scientific research] analyzed elsewhere,” Indias says in Filipino. She mentions how a lot of Ateneans go to UP and La Salle just to conduct experiments for their course requirements.
However, aside from the fact that “it costs money every time you want something analyzed [off campus],” Indias also considers this situation as counterproductive to the university’s thrust to produce quality research output, something highly regarded in international university rankings. It becomes a question of Ateneo’s self-sufficiency in contributing to scientific knowledge.
Nevertheless, Dayrit maintains that such outward venturing by the science majors is part of their formation. There have indeed been young Atenean scientists who reaped awards for experiments done mostly outside the school.
On the other hand, Chan, like Indias, has serious reservations about such a situation. She asks, “What about other students with no contacts [from outsider labs]?”
Her chief concern is that a lot of science majors would have to settle for projects with less complex techniques and methods: the types which they can just do here in school but are much less fruitful than what they could have otherwise undertaken.
Money talks
Chan believes that funding is a primary root of this problem.
For one, she mentions how there is no regular funding allocation for something as basic as facilities maintenance.
“There are no funds for repair and maintenance,” Chan says. “I’m hoping we will get contingency funds from [Vice President John Paul] Vergara. It’s been an issue [for a long time]—that there are really no allocations.”
“We can’t have [the fume hoods] fixed since we don’t have funds,” she cites as an example. “The fume hoods haven’t been checked in a long time; [maintenance] requires changing the filters every year.”
Despite these funding troubles, though, Dayrit stresses how it’s not really about the school not having the money; for him, it’s just a matter of priority.
“If the departments really wanted all the equipment they need, the budget needs to be doubled,” Dayrit says. “So we prioritize. And, depending on what we can afford, we purchase.”
He explains that this system of prioritization puts a premium on the equipment that can be used by multiple science departments.
Chan agrees with the rationale behind this prioritization, and recognizes the budget limitations. Still, she resents that this system has resulted in the putting on hold of many of her department’s ‘expensive but necessary’ project proposals.
“[The administration] sees to it that basic maintenance is [carried out], such as with the lab sinks,” Chan concedes, but she immediately explains that “the plans not approved [by the budget committee for the current year] will still be requested the following year—until they all pile up.”
At this point, she says, lab development hits a deadlock. Consequently, the department only gets to maintain the most basic equipment, like the microscopes.
‘Deliberate planning’
There are different ways by which projects in the Loyola Schools can get their funding, but even with these options already available, the science departments are still hard-pressed to come up with funding for their concerns.
Such cases motivated the faculty in attendance during the Faculty Day last June 18 to push for a university office that would be tasked to look for project ‘funders.’ This system has been adopted by other schools, such as UST.
Vergara, from SOSE himself, plans to address these budgeting problems head-on.
“What we’d like to start on is more deliberate planning,” he says. “It’s allocating the right resources and making sure it’s buyable within our own context.”
“Every five years, there’s always something out there [that] you have to change,” he says. He therefore explains that as early as now, the university must look into the kinds of upgrades it would need in six to twelve years, so that it wouldn’t come as a surprise then.
Intrinsic role
The current state of Ateneo labs has great repercussions on the greater university drive for nation-building. SOSE’s institutional vision-mission clearly champions the sciences’ intrinsic role in the advancement of Philippine society.
“The school commits itself to develop science and engineering which can empower the underprivileged sectors of society,” the document boldly declares.
But whether this declaration will remain without conclusion—like the proof-deprived hypotheses of Ateneo’s young scientists—will now depend on how the concerned bodies are going to deal with the data set they have in their hands regarding the issue.
