“WE HAVEN’T heard of anything that’s a game stopper,” said Vice President for University and Global Relations Jose Cruz, SJ on the Ateneo’s proposal to shift to an August to May academic calendar in 2015.

In the proposed calendar for the Loyola Schools (LS) and the Professional Schools, the first semester will begin on August 10 and will end on December 12. The second semester will run from January 18 to May 21.

The Office of the Vice President for University and Global Relations (OVPUGR) carried out a series of consultations throughout the Ateneo to identify concerns with regard to a potential shift.

According to the proposal primer released on the school’s official website, “Many of those consulted express the views that the concerns were not insurmountable barriers to the introduction and implementation of an August-May calendar.”

An online survey was also conducted from October 15 to November 7 to gather responses from the student body.

Based on the early entries, Cruz said he was confident that the Ateneo community was generally in favor of changing the academic calendar.

Although the survey is an important factor, the decision to shift will not depend on it alone; the Board of Trustees will make the final decision.

However, Cruz reiterated that the administrators will “look upon what [the] people say.”

For University President Jose Ramon Villarin, SJ, the shift will be a step in the right direction.

“It would align our educational efforts with the rest of the world, ensure continuing academic excellence, prepare us better for the global landscape and even strengthen our national identity,” he said.

A more global Ateneo

By 2014, the Philippines will be the only member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to still have a June to March calendar.

Moreover, over 80% of the Ateneo’s existing partner universities begin their school year in August or September.

Cruz said that realigning the academic calendar with those of other countries will work to the advantage of the Ateneo.

“If you ask me, we are at least 10 years late,” he said.

As stated in the primer, the changing global landscape is demanding the Ateneo to meet world standards by becoming a global university.

To achieve this, the Ateneo has established strategies to foster global competency and a global outlook throughout the institution.

These include the following: Creating a healthier diversity within the Ateneo community, providing more opportunities for students and faculty, establishing joint and dual degree programs, undertaking collaborative research efforts, expanding outreach efforts to cover regional concerns, hosting and participating in international conferences and competitions and internationalizing the curriculum.

Implementing the academic calendar shift will allow for the Ateneo’s “fuller participation in the lively interchange among universities and the global conversation.”

According to Villarin, “Shifting the academic calendar, then, will optimize and create the opportunities to prepare our students for a more globalized world.”

But the primer also emphasizes that internationalization will take place in the Ateneo, regardless of the decision on the shift. Shifting, however, “will dramatically increase the pace and extent at which it [internationalization] happens.”

Villarin remarked that internationalization is not an end in itself; rather, it is a means to improve the quality of Ateneo education.

LONGER CHRISTMAS BREAKS? Posters were strategically placed around camous inviting Ateneans to participate in a survey for the academic calendar shift proposal. (Photo by Ryan Y. Racca)

Dealing with the implications

Some members of the Ateneo community raised concerns regarding the practical implications of the possible calendar shift.

Senior Issa Nery thinks that the shift will be beneficial to the foreign inbound students since it will no longer be hard for them to adjust with the calendar.

However, in a separate interview, Cruz stated that outbound students will have a trimestral year due to the shift; April to June will be for the first term, August to December for the term overseas and January to May for the third term.

As stated in the primer, a possible solution to the schedule conflicts of students bound for JTA is the planning of their exchange programs as early as freshman year. In that case, necessary adjustments can already be made to avoid delayed graduation.

Nery also mentioned that the shift will solve the unbalanced length of semesters in the current calendar.

As projected by OVPUGR, Christmas break will fall during the semestral break, eliminating the problem of a shorter second semester.

However, concerns regarding the adverse effects of the shift were also raised.

Freshman Anton Miranda is concerned that the shift will harm the Ateneo’s relationships with other local universities that have not also made the shift.

“Although the shift promises opportunities to connect with international schools, our established relationships with local institutions may be compromised,” he said.

Miranda pointed out that the Ateneo should pursue the shift only if the Commission on Higher Education issues a mandatory order that all schools in the Philippines should adapt the shift.

As stated in the primer, although CHED has not stated any intention of imposing the shift on all tertiary levels, the agency will not keep institutions from considering it.

Media outlets have reported that the University of the Philippines (UP) has already decided that all their campuses will be making the change by 2014 or 2015.

However, Villarin clarified that Ateneo’s proposal to shift was not influenced by UP’s decision.

“This [shift] was also prompted in part by our own engagement in the Asean University Network which is composed of the top universities in the Asean region,” he said.

Another concern raised by students is that the new academic calendar will conflict with the traditional summer vacation of Filipinos. The intense heat during this season is also cause for concern.

OVPUGR is proposing to install air conditioning units in all the LS classrooms to address the issue. The office also plans to plant trees around certain buildings so that there will be cooler air.

The office also suggested that the Ateneans reinterpret their mindset of “summer break” in order to adjust to the proposed calendar.

A necessary compromise

Villarin admitted that there are advantages and disadvantages to the proposal.

“These will be carefully weighed against each other, and if it is viewed that the benefits will far outweigh the cost, then we will proceed,” he said.

According to him, determining whether the shift should be implemented or not is a difficult process. It will entail understanding what might be lost if we stay or if we shift; ultimately, a risk will be taken either way.

Villarin said, “In the spirit of magis, we are confident that the Ateneo, as a community, has the flexibility and spirit to work on whatever it discerns and deems to be the better thing to do. Retaining or shifting to a new academic calendar is no exception.”

With reports from Uriel N. Galace and Elijah V. Pascual