Message from the Vice President
I warmly welcome you all to the Loyola Schools in this School Year 2020-2021!
The Loyola Schools community this year has a population of 10,000+ students (undergrad and grad levels). Among those whom we welcome are 2,600+ First Year Ateneans, 20.5% of whom are scholars. We are also happy to report that 20.8% of all undergraduate students across all year levels are scholars.
We did the best we could to respond positively to the needs of students who are gifted with academic excellence, personal qualities, and leadership potential. To be able to provide them with scholarships was our pleasure – our way of giving tribute to the giftedness of our youth.
Our World Online
This year, we are on an online campus called the Ateneo Blue Cloud https://ateneobluecloud.ateneo.edu/. It is an exciting world in cyberspace but also a daunting one for many. Adjustments to an online learning mode are inevitable. Faculty members and professionals have been trained in the Adaptive Design for Learning program, specifically focused on how the syllabi in our curricula can be transformed into an online format so that learning is not lost in the use of technology. Not to forget, the Core Curriculum courses have also been designed to tie up with co-curricular formation work such as NSTP and service-learning which have also been converted into online activities.
With good collaboration between faculty and students, we hope to make our dream for online Ateneo education a great experience. There is the Rizal Library with its 45 online databases, 37,000 ebooks and thousands of various other collections continues to give academic support for teaching and learning (bit.ly/rl_offcampus_access).
Check out their website for their services http://rizal.library.ateneo.edu/. You will be pleased to know, for example, that they can digitize material (https://bit.ly/rl_studentrequests; https://bit.ly/rl_facultyrequests) to respond to the academic needs of students and faculty.
More than just classroom instruction, other processes and assistances have also been migrated online. I would like to commend the different LS offices, particularly the Office of the Associate Dean for Student Formation and the Office of the Associate Dean for Student and Administrative Services for their fantastic team work. Great team effort was the secret in their ability to turn things around, in no time at all, to design formation programs and student services on an online mode. The one stop hub for student services is a wonderful friendly resource. Check out LSOne https://sites.google.com/ateneo.edu/ls-one if you haven’t done so yet.
Faculty Research
While our faculty are busy with teaching and some are also doing administrative work, their enthusiasm for research has not abated. Their work is relevant not just for our little community but also for the greater society – e.g. developing a monitoring system for COVID19; developing community resilience in this pandemic; tracking government expenditure of the amelioration budget; developing the use of virgin coconut oil to address COVID19 health issues; etc. Focused research in the sciences is also being undertaken by the Ateneo Research Institute for Science and Engineering (ARISE) in collaboration with external bodies. Grants have been provided for by the University Research Council and the Loyola Schools for continuing research on COVID-19-related issues, online education, environment-related concerns, governance and nation-building. We commend the faculty for our increasing publications in peer-referred journals. Information about the research and scholarship of faculty may be obtained from the Ateneo Archium https://archium.ateneo.edu/ - a repository of such kind of information – the products of critical thinking, scientific and creative imagination, and reflective practice.
Cura Personalis
Care for the person is one of the core values of the Ateneo Loyola Schools. In this time and age, when we are faced with mental health and gender-related issues, prominent services in the Loyola Schools have been designated to focus on these areas.
We promote wellness and wellbeing that attend to mental health concerns. Initiatives are spearheaded by the Office of Guidance and Counselling (OGC) through psychological counselling, webinars that train students, for example, in stress management, time Management, maintaining healthy relationships, and emotion regulation. These and other related activities are designed online so that responding to students’ needs is not stalled. LSOne can connect you to OGC.
Well-being is also promoted by the Loyola Schools policy on “Building a Gender Inclusive, Gender Responsive, and Gender Safe Community.” This is actualized and affirmed in and by the activities of the Gender Hub in collaboration with the Sanggunian and other relevant bodies in the university. The Gender Hub has recently released a primer on “Gender-Based Sexual Harassment in the Context of the Safe Spaces Act.” A copy can be downloaded from this link http://bit.do/SafeSpacesPrimer. The services of the Gender Hub continue online.
On a related matter, the University has just recently launched its “Code of Decorum and Administrative Rules on Sexual Harassment, Other Forms of Sexual Misconduct and Inappropriate Behavior” – effective 26 September 2020. A full copy of the document can be obtained from this link: http://www.ateneo.edu/policies/code-decorum-investigation-sexual-harassment.
Our Campus Below the Cloud
Living in the Ateneo Blue Cloud campus might seem that we are just floating on air. In fact, we touch the sky but our feet have not left the ground. Our physical campus is lush and beautiful, rich in the company of birds flying freely from tree to tree while rendering their melodious symphony. Designated maintenance crew continues to keep our grounds and facilities in good shape and order. We will not allow these valuable resources to tarnish. It is also our responsibility to re-imagine the kind of campus that we will have when we can gradually be allowed to go onsite. While we think that things will be different from what they used to be, we are confident that we shall go back to the same beautiful, caring, and welcoming campus.
Hope and Courage
While we are in this most unprecedented time of uncertainty, volatility, and adversity, we also know that God’s grace remains undefeated. Imbued with this trust, we sail on – ride on the crest of the wave, as it were – on the vast stormy sea. But we have to remember to be kinder to ourselves and each other, to be more patient with ourselves and each other. We should err on the side of compassion. This is how we are able to build courage. While hope is good, it must be accompanied with courage. As Thucydides, a Greek historian, is quoted to have said: “the secret to freedom is courage.”
I wish you all a hope-filled and courageous heart!
“Mary for you.
For your white and blue.
We pray you keep us Mary constantly true.
We pray you keep us Mary faithful to you!”
Maria Luz C. Vilches, Ph.D.
Vice President for the Loyola Schools
