SANGGUNIAN VICE President Ian Agatep and Freshman School of Humanities Central Board Representative JB Bautista met with university officials on November 13 to talk about the new class schedule proposal of the Ateneo administration.
In a memo released through its Facebook account on November 14, the Sanggunian informed the student body that the administration is considering moving the 7:30 AM weekday classes to 8:00 AM.
The proposal was made by Vice President for the Loyola Schools John Paul Vergara, PhD, as a response to the findings presented by the Ateneo Traffic Group formed by University President Jose Ramon Villarin, SJ to address the mobility issues on campus.
In the said meeting, Office of Student Activities Director Chris Castillo and University Registrar Joaquin Agtarap talked with Agatep and Bautista about the pros and cons of the proposal.
If approved, the class schedule change will take effect in the first semester of SY 2013-2014. Summer and Saturday classes will remain unchanged.
Getting the students’ perspective
“The first thing that JB and I asked was ‘Sir, will 30 minutes make that big of a difference?’ VP Vergara believes it so,” said Agatep.
The consultation identified that moving the earliest weekday classes to 8:00 AM will provide LS students more time to prepare for school.
It will also ease travel to Ateneo since they will be able to avoid the usual morning traffic jam.
However, because classes will be moved 30 minutes later, evening classes would have to be moved as well. The same applies to activity hours during Mondays and Fridays.
“If [the proposal] will push through, we also have to [think about] the welfare [of the students]. This includes the availability of transportation,” Agatep said.
He mentioned that fewer tricycles are available at night. Agatep also acknowledged that Light Rail Transit operations end at 9:30 PM and Metro Rail Transit operations end at 10:00 PM.
The meeting was the first of a series of consultations regarding the proposal. Agatep said CB representatives have already begun consulting with their respective schools.
“What Sir JJ [Agtarap] really just wants is more of getting concerns and feedback because they might not be able to see everything from the students’ perspective,” Agatep said.
Initial reactions
Several Ateneans have already voiced out their concerns through Facebook. “This [new class schedule proposal] is more of a reactive step than a preventive one,” said legal management junior Joben Odulio as a reaction to the memo.
“A solution to the Ateneo morning and afternoon traffic is long overdue,” she added. “If we’re just basing traffic here as the reason for pushing the classes back, then how do we solve the one in the afternoons, which is as worse?”
Interdisciplinary studies junior Jeremy Sim said that one of the solutions for the traffic jam is for those stuck in traffic to practice discipline by waking up or leaving their homes around 10 minutes earlier. He added that doing so could make a difference.
For applied mathematical finance junior Nathaniel Barretto, the new schedule proposal will not be that effective if the main purpose is to minimize traffic around the Katipunan area.
“Kung traffic iyong problema nila, dapat i-filter iyong number of cars na pwedeng makapasok sa Ateneo (If traffic is the problem, then they should just filter the number of cars that enter Ateneo).”
Barretto added that the 5:00 to 6:30 PM activity hour is too late for the students.
