Thomasians fear excessive workload despite academic break
By Ian Patrick Laqui
On Sept. 15, the University implemented a two-day academic break, halting all classes and deadlines. Yet, some students said it was barely enough to shake off the burden.
Yesterday, Thomasians waited for announcements from their respective colleges to extend the deadlines of requirements and other assessments.
Some colleges declared “asynchronous days” and extended deadlines up to a certain date.
This might sound like a piece of good news, but for Kris, a third-year student from the Faculty of Arts and Letters, this will only add to the workload of students.
She said that extending the deadlines while increasing the workload makes the academic break pointless.
“[It] defeats the purpose kung pagbalik naman natin from the break, sasalubungin tayo ng sandamakmak na requirements that hasn’t been distributed through the semester,” she said.
On Sept. 20, the Faculty of Arts and Letters released a memorandum implementing asynchronous classes from Sept. 22 to Sept. 25 to “help lessen their [student’s] psychological stress,” which made them extend all required deadlines.
Some professors concurred with the idea of extending the deadlines. But for Mark Angeles, a professor from the Filipino Department, maybe a little extension of the break would be better since giving high stakes assessments are prohibited.
“I think it would be fair to extend the academic break for the rest of the week,” he said referring to the two-day academic break.
The Faculty of Arts and Letters seconded two days after the College of Fine Arts and Design (CFAD) implemented an asynchronous mode of instruction.
For Behavioral Science Society Vice-President Timothy Coronel, “asynchronous days” could be taken for granted, for it is a compromise between the students and administrators.
“This is far from a perfect solution to the issue at hand, but it’s still some form of a solution despite being flawed,” he said.
He emphasized that the “bigger solution” is implementing an “academic ease.”
“If this situation keeps looping around, nothing is going to change,” he said.
“Obviously, we are grateful for the consideration of our petition, but we hope for more focus on general ‘academic ease’ rather than these breaks,” he added.
No rest
Despite the initiative of some colleges to “ease” student work by implementing asynchronous classes, others pushed through with synchronous sessions. This caused students to clamor for an extension of the academic break, as they expected that their colleges would follow CFAD’s lead.
For Denise, a third-year BS Psychology student, it would have been insensitive of her college to continue with synchronous sessions.
“I was kinda disappointed,” she said. “Parang ginawa lang completion days ‘yung academic break kasi may mga quizzes and presentation agad after.”
Just like Kris, she pressed on the piling of workloads that might cause a toll on the students.
“It is hard to keep up. Assessments are piling up at nag-cause din ng burn out sa students ‘yun kahit acad break kasi may paparating na naman na assessment,” she said.
Despite this, Denise still hoped for an academic ease by limiting the number of assessments given to them.
“Nagkaroon [dati] ng policy na 2–3 assessments na lang ang ibibigay. Medyo mahirap siyang decision, I know, kasi need minsan ng students makabawi ng grade if ever walang kukunan. Pero sana, maconsider ulit nila ‘yun,” she said referring to the modifications for all academic activities issued by the College of Science administration last April which limits the number of assessments to be given.
In the latest memorandum released by the College of Science, asynchronous classes were preferred, but professors were still given a choice of delivering their classes synchronously or asynchronously.
“What’s important right now is the welfare of the students, not the calendar. I understand that we need to follow the curriculum, but given this extraordinary time, the institution should reconsider it and accommodate the needs of the students,” she emphasized.
As of writing, the Office of the Secretary-General still has no response regarding the possibility of extending the academic break.
