Following the announcement sent by the Office of the Registrar last May 8, 2019 regarding the adjustment of the College break (C-break) requested by the Central Student Government (CSG), CSG members denied their involvement with the change of schedule to be set on Fridays from 11:20 a.m. to 2:20 p.m. through a post blast on their personal social media accounts. The Department of Student Life (DSL) later clarified that the request was made by the Student Handbook Committee that included the previous board of CSG officers.
“On behalf of the Benilde CSG I would like to disclose to the Benildean community that we never requested such change of schedule for the College Break for this 3rd term of AY 2018-2019. The Benilde CSG’s already looking over this matter. Thank you [sic],” was posted individually by CSG members on Twitter and different Benildean Facebook groups.
The Benildean spoke with CSG President Patricia Kapunan and Vice President for External Affairs Jazmine Ang regarding the sudden post blast of the officers on their personal accounts rather than through the CSG’s official Facebook page.
“As of now what I can just clarify was that it wasn’t the incumbent officers who requested this change of schedule. But as far as I know the changing of c-break was discussed during the handbook revision with the previous batch of CSG officers and [Benilde Committee on Student Involvement] (BCSI) representatives,” Kapunan said.
According to them, the investigation is still on-going on why the CSG was the only one held accountable for the changes. “We would want to clarify that we do support this decision, it was just not CSG who initiated this plan,” Ang said.
From the admin’s point of view
Meanwhile, The Benildean further investigated on the matter through an interview with the DSL Associate Dean Mr. Levi Albania who said that, “The changing of C-break came from the deliberation from the previous [academic] year, so if it included previous members of the CSG, it is possible that it was the former members of the CSG. Unfortunately, we cannot verify that yet unless, given the time, we could get the data coming from the minute of all the meetings before.”
He agreed that “their [CSG] claim is valid and the current CSG are not the ones who requested [for the change of schedule].” The change was apparently requested by the Student Handbook Committee consists of the CSG, representatives of different schools, and Benilde Committee on Student Involvement (BCSI), all of which are facilitated by the DSL.”
A test for a change
Mr. Albania clarified that the change of schedule was a pilot test intended to last for the third term of this academic year to determine the more effective schedule in increasing the engagement of the students in the activities by the College and student organizations.
The reason behind this was that the allotted time frame for Monday was not observed by everyone, thus compiling it in one day in a span of three hours to give priority to classes, since the new schedule was the “easiest and most practical way.”
“It’s a test run so we’ll see whether the move would encourage more student participation. […] But we also regret that this somehow made confusion, especially online,” Albania added.
This coming July, there will be a deliberation in consultation with the current CSG and recognized student organizations to evaluate the pilot test, and to finalize the schedule of the C-break that will be effective in the first term of A.Y. 2019-2020.
Starting this third term of academic year 2018-2019, the new schedule of the C-break, Friday from 11:20 a.m. to 2:20 p.m., will be followed by the Benildean community instead of the previous schedule of Monday and Wednesday from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 pm.
