Balik Tanaw: LS Faculty Day looks back at lessons learned during the pandemic

On 10 February, Loyola Schools faculty and administrators convened for Faculty Day. The gathering, which celebrated the start of the second semester, had the theme of "Balik Tanaw: Looking Back with Compassion, Moving Forward with Courage" and focused on the University's achievements during and learnings from three years of the pandemic.

Dr Maria Luz C Vilches, Vice President for the Loyola Schools, started the day off by sharing the latest developments on campus. These included the University's ranking as the top Philippine university in the 2023 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings and the 2023 THE Impact Rankings, as well as maintaining its position as the top private university in the Philippines in the QS Asia University rankings. This is on top of the ASEAN University Network–Quality Assurance (AUN-QA) granting an overall score of 5—“Better than Adequate”—to the AB Management Economics, BS Legal Management, and BS Management Information Systems programs.

She also mentioned the Ateneo Blue Eagle's hard-fought win in the UAAP Season 85 Men's Basketball Tournament, and the Ateneo Debate Society's back-to-back wins at the Asian British Parliamentary Debate Championships and World Universities Debating Championship. These were on top of the Filipino Department's "Sari Sari" winning "Best Educational Program" at the Catholic Mass Media Awards, as well as Dr Edgar Samar and Alexis Abola winning the Special Prize for Novel and Second Prize, Short Story Category, respectively at the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature.

In addition, she noted that the University continued to put out research work, with 341 Scopus-indexed publications as of 1 February 2023, with further papers and grants coming in the near future.

Beyond accolades and achievements, Dr Vilches acknowledged how the school was further acclimatizing to the return to on-site face-to-face classes. She noted that students' feedback indicated they would like to have their classes on-site. She also commended those teachers who were either senior citizens or had comorbidities for their efforts to accommodate their students' desire for face-to-face classes.

Fr Roberto C Yap SJ, University President, then discussed how the Ignatian value of Magis—the passion for excellence—was expressed through the University's continued position as the top Philippine university in the THE Impact Rankings.

"Among the different rankings that are out there I've always liked this one because I think the THE Impact is the one closest to our Jesuit Mission," said Fr Yap, He continued stating that a Jesuit university must always be involved in social transformation and must be "a force for good that really engages society and its problems."

He noted that the rankings cited Ateneo for its work in a number of sustainable development goals: clean water and sanitation; sustainable cities and communities; peace, justice, and strong institutions; and partnerships for the goals.

Fr Yap also brought up the University's strong showing at the THE World University Rankings. He admitted that the University ranking as number one in the country was a "pleasant surprise," this being the school's first time joining the rankings after all. At the same time, he acknowledged the hard work of all those involved in the process, especially with the number of academic papers needed.

As part of this, Fr Yap broke down what the rankings showed as the University's strengths, with Ateneo ranking high in education and social sciences. In addition, the University also did well in terms of citations, with Dr Yap attributing it as one of the major contributions to the ranking. 

In addition to the remarks from Dr Vilches and Fr Yap, this Faculty Day also featured the presentation of the results of the AteneoBlueCloud focus group study by Dr Edith Liane P Alampay, Chairperson of the Department of Psychology. Commissioned by the Office of the University President in 2021, the study gathered insights into the experiences of the Ateneo community in the shift to online learning during the pandemic.

The study highlighted the many challenges faced by both teachers and students during the shift to online learning. These included teachers having to learn to become content creators, and students having to learn to deal with isolation and lack of interaction with their peers and teachers.

Beyond the challenges, the study also highlighted the many things that the community learned during this time. This included which strategies were more conducive to learning in an online environment and the fact that many of the challenges were shared between both students and teachers—the recognition of which greatly aided the online experience for both.

Following the morning's presentations, the teachers broke out into smaller groups for the School Discussion in the afternoon. Building on the theme of "Balik Tanaw," the teachers were tasked with answering questions in light of all their experiences during the pandemic. The first focused on learnings and achievements made during the pandemic that were worth celebrating. These are the success stories that the teachers can build on coming into the second semester of this school year and beyond. The second question tasked the teachers with reflecting on what more could be done. With this, the teachers had to consider which concrete practices and support systems Ateneo should consider starting, continuing, or even stopping—should the need arise—as it moves forward into the new normal.