CLASSES AND TRANSPORT PROTEST (HE Memo#Y2.05)

HE Memo#Y2.05
15 January 2024

Hello Higher Education community and welcome to the Second Semester!  I hope that you had a good start of it today. 

I’m sure you have read in the daily papers about the plan of Manibela and Piston to hold a transport protest tomorrow, 16 January 2024, in Metro Manila. That may create a disruption in our schedules.

Since we don’t know, as of now, the extent of the coverage of this planned transport protest, we are going to continue holding classes onsite for the Schools of Education and Learning Design, Humanities, Management, Science and Engineering, and Social Sciences.  But I ask that we exercise understanding to those who might be affected by the protest.  Open communication is important between faculty and students. Students could kindly send a message to their teachers if they are unable to come to classes because of the protest. Teachers could kindly respond compassionately.

We know from our experience of past transport strikes that when the coverage paralyzes major sectors of the thoroughfare, our default response is to shift to the online teaching and learning mode.  We will monitor the situation tomorrow and make the necessary adjustments.

For the Schools of Medicine and Public Health, Law, Government, and Business, the respective Deans of these schools shall make the necessary announcements which are appropriate to their contexts.

Let us maintain equanimity as we begin our semester in this new year!