Board of Regents approves UP Diliman academic calendar shift

The University of the Philippines Board of Regents on Friday approved the proposed change in the start of the academic calendar from June to August, starting School Year 2014-2015.

"The University of the Philippines Board of Regents in its 1297th meeting today approved the shift of the academic calendar for UP Diliman to August-July from the current June-May," said UP Vice President for Public Affairs Prof. J. Prospero E. De Vera III, in a press statement posted on the UP System website.

"An earlier referendum in 24-26 February organized by the UP Diliman Chancellor and participated in by 84% (954 of 1,130) of all faculty showed that 70% of those who participated voted for the academic shift, and 76% wanted to implement the shift in August 2014," the statement explained.

"The colleges that supported the shift include Law (100%), Labor and Industrial Relations (100%), Marine Science Institute (95%), Statistics (94%), Asian Institute of Tourism (91%), Human Kinetics (91%), Architecture (87%), Engineering (86%), and National College of Public Administration and Governance (83%)," it added.

Quoting student regent Krista Iris Melgarejo, the Ctrl-Shift Movement, a group of students that apposes the shift,  earlier announced that the UP Board of Regents has adopted the proposed shift in UP Diliman's academic calendar.

The UP System's Board of Regents, which previously approved the calendar shift of other constituent universities, took up UP-Diliman's decision for finalization on Friday.

In February, the BOR approved the change of academic schedule for the whole university system, except for the Diliman campus.

Earlier, UP President Alfredo Pascual, who was blocked by members of the Ctrl-Shift Movement from entering UP-Diliman's Executive House where the finalization meeting was to take place, said the academic calendar needs to be changed to synchronize it with school calendar patterns of other ASEAN and regional colleges and universities.

"Mayroon tayong mga joint program," he said, adding that weather is not a factor for the academic calendar to be changed.

"Hindi dapat basehan 'yon," he said, even as he assured the students the BOR has done appropriate consultations.

"Mayroon tayong proseso," he noted. "Kinuha natin ang reaction ng League of College Councils, 78 percent is pro and 19 percent is against." — LBG/TJD, GMA News