THE SANGGUNIAN Central Board (CB) discussed the Ateneo’s class suspension procedure during the CB meeting held last August 16.
This is in response to the confusion experienced by the student body with regard to the suspension of classes last August 12 due to Typhoon Labuyo.
Sanggunian Secretary General AJ Elicaño gave an informal report regarding what exactly took place on the evening of August 11, when commotion about the retraction of class suspension broke out on several social media networks.
Admin confirmation process
According to Elicaño, the Ateneo administration immediately tried to contact Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista’s office to confirm the mayor’s declaration that classes in all levels in the city have been cancelled.
Bautista made the announcement at 10:00PM through DZMM.
“The policy of the admin regarding these things is when announcements like that go out, they immediately try to contact the mayor’s office to verify. The reason for that is that sometimes these outlets are frankly wrong,” Elicaño said.
He clarified that the Sanggunian withheld suspension announcements until they received a confirmation text message from the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) Director Christopher Castillo.
At 11:12PM, Sanggunian President Dan Remo announced on Twitter that Loyola Schools’ (LS) suspension of classes had been confirmed by OSA.
However, a few minutes later, social media sites were again bombarded by posts and tweets regarding a retraction of the supposed suspension for the tertiary level.
At around 11:30PM, the University Communication and Public Relations Office announced that Vice President for Administration Nemesio Que, SJ confirmed that classes in grade school and high school had been suspended.
Some LS students took Que’s statement as a retraction of the college class suspension announcement.
Remo promptly received a text from Castillo to “standby” as they tried confirm the reports.
School of Science and Engineering Dean Evangeline Bautista, PhD then confirmed LS suspension at 11:46PM through her Facebook account.
The Office of the Associate Dean for Student Affairs later re-affirmed the suspension.
Remo announced the re-confirmation of the suspension of classes at 11:50PM.
Myth of the Ateneo autonomy
School of Humanities Chair RJ Dimla brought up students’ concern with regard to the Ateneo’s autonomy from the local government unit (LGU) when it comes to class suspensions.
According to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Memorandum Order No. 15, series of 2012, “Classes at the collegiate level may be cancelled or suspended at the discretion of local chief executives of LGUs and/or heads of HEIs (Higher Education Institutions) if special circumstances in their area such as flooding, road damage, etc. warrant it.”
Remo said during the meeting, “Ideally, suspension of classes is left to the individual administrators of the schools because they would know best how to deal with the situation because it is not uniform throughout the city.”
“However, when the LGU executive head declares that he is calling off classes for the entirety of his jurisdiction, we are obliged to follow it provided that it is confirmed and legitimate,” Remo added.
