VICE PRESIDENT for the Loyola Schools (VPLS) Maria Luz Vilches, PhD, said that sustaining research developments, heightening social involvement, and fostering internationalization are her term priorities during the Faculty Day at the Ricardo and Dr. Rosita Leong Hall Auditorium on August 17.

Formerly the School of Humanities Dean, Vilches assumed the position of VPLS in June 2016. She was preceded by John Paul Vergara, PhD, who served as VPLS from 2010 to 2016.

The VPLS manages the four Loyola Schools (LS): School of Humanities, School of Science and Engineering, School of Social Sciences, and the John Gokongwei School of Management. Additionally, the VPLS also supervises student and faculty academic life.

Faculty Day is held every beginning of the semester to discuss the current situation and direction of the university. It also serves as a platform for faculty members and administrative staff to voice out their concerns.

Vilches noted that for her term as VPLS, she will expand research, outreach, and internationalization. Aside from these, she also mentioned the significance of formation in both students and faculty, and the implementation of the new core curriculum.

“I’ve been in the office for [only] a couple of months. I’ve been meeting people, and I’ve just been looking at where we are and where we can possibly be. These are just first steps for me,” she said.

“This morning is really just for preliminaries. We can take things from here in relation to how we can consolidate priorities,” she added.

‘First steps’

According to Vilches, all aspects of research are on the rise based on data from the office of Environmental Science Associate Professor Emilyn Espiritu, PhD. This was observable through the increasing trend in incentives, publications, infrastructure development, and awards received by LS faculty.

“We’re going to have a research roadmap which I’m going to present to the President’s Council soon as my assignment. Dr. Espiritu worked on this during John Paul [Vergara’s] time. She’s thought of 2015 to 2025,” she said.

“[Dr. Espiritu] looked at interdisciplinary research programs, industry, academe, research partnerships. What’s important is that there’s an increase in funding allocation for research and scholarly work to include manuscript writers, admin assistants, and technical staff,” she added.

Vilches also explained that there already exists a Faculty Social Involvement Coordinator for Loyola Schools in terms of her thrust in outreach and extension. However, she believes that assigning coordinators per school will increase efficiency.

“I thought that we could allow for more focused ways of generating ideas and activities according to the pulses of the different schools,” she said.

Vilches also emphasized the importance of “depth of linkage” in articulating internationalization. Additionally, three areas are already being looked into for organizational capability: Streamlining processes for greater efficiency, setting up structures for better responsiveness to needs, and aligning LS work with university-wide strategies and central administration.

“There will be guidelines to help departments and schools to navigate through the processes of linkage formation, collaborative research, student and faculty mobility, and collaborative programs,” she said.

“In line with streamlining processes, we are proposing to the School Council to turn all existing programs into departments no matter what size they are. [This is] to avoid confusion in the use of the term program as office and program as degree program,” she added.

Moreover, Vilches said that the Guidance office will be transformed into the Office of Student Wellness with two divisions: Guidance and Counseling section and the Psychological Services section.

On the core curriculum

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Josefina Hofileña, PhD, provided updates on the core curriculum revisions. She said that at the end of the last semester, the curriculum committee presented three proposals.

“The first proposal detailed the specific revisions to our core curriculum, the second fixed the minimum and maximum academic load for undergraduate degrees, and the third proposed the creation of the Office of the Associate Dean for the Core Curriculum,” she said.

The School Council approved all three proposals on May 2, while the Board of Trustees approved the first two proposals on May 15. The Board of Trustees’ approval on the creation of the Office of the Associate Dean for the Core Curriculum is not required.

Hofileña explained that the key feature of the revised core curriculum is the emphasis on [being interdisciplinary].

“The core curriculum includes four interdisciplinary electives: First is an elective in English where a student chooses one elective from a list of identified Literature and Communication courses. These course are to be offered by English Department in collaboration with other disciplines,” she said.

“The second elective is offered by ones department, program, or school as part of the major curriculum. This is, therefore, counted both as an elective in the major curriculum as well as in the core curriculum,” she said. “The last two will be chosen by the student and these electives can be counted [as part of] the major curriculum.”

The second proposal was to set the minimum academic overload of a four-year undergraduate to 136 units and the maximum at 175. Hofileña said that the rationale behind this is to “maintain balance between formation and specialized training in a manner that still allows for flexibility and curricular planning.”

The following guidelines are to be observed in the distribution of units: Heavier semester load in the freshman year to support the student in transitioning from high school to college, lighter load in the semester in which the National Service Training Program will be assigned, lighter load in the second semester of senior year when the student completes thesis requirements, and the assignment of the appropriate number of academic units to all practicum and internship courses.

According to Hofileña, the Office of the Associate Dean for the Core Curriculum was created because of the need for oversight in developing the content and methodologies of core courses, the need to develop faculty who will teach core courses, and the need to link core courses with the integrated Ateneo information programs.

Newly-appointed Associate Dean for the Core Curriculum Benjamin Tolosa, PhD, believes that there should be a clear articulation of the Ignatian character in the core curriculum.

“One of the learnings of St. Ignatius when he went to the University of Paris was that it wasn’t just a haphazard collection of courses, there was really a plan. Part of the pedagogy is the emphasis on experience, reflection, and action. The importance of student-centeredness is central to this pedagogy,” he said.

Tolosa added that that the challenge lies in coming to a consensus on the how the success of the core curriculum will be measured.

“Obviously we do need metrics, but if you’re engaged in formation which is really long term, internal transformation, we have to rely on stories as well,” he said.