by Karylle Panorel | November 20, 2021
Silliman University Student Government (SUSG) president, Myka Reambonanza discussed preparations and plans for students for a possible return to limited face-to-face classes.
According to Reambonanza, the main thrust of the SUSG’s F2F preparations is for the Health Emergency Response Team (HERT) to be as active as possible and collaborative with the Silliman University (SU) administration.
Reambonanza also talked about making sure that students will follow the protocols if F2F classes resume before proceeding to any kind of event.
“As much as we really do want to organize events or organize F2F programs through the different committees, we thought the priority is still really the safety of the students,” Reambonanza added.
When asked about the SUSG’s plans for F2F operations, Reambonanza stated that they are still waiting for the university to make an official announcement about CHED’s approval for F2F and that they will still need to approach the administration for plans to align their preparations with that of the admin.
“Once we are aligned then we’ll have different committees, especially HERT, to strengthen their operations,” she added.
If the situation improves and everything goes in order, the SUSG plans to hold a small welcoming event, possibly providing tokens or welcoming presents for students instead of having a big gathering.
“We don’t want to give false hope, but we just want to at least welcome them [students] at some point without putting anyone at risk. The top priority will always be health,” Reambonanza explained.
The SUSG’s possible F2F operations will observe the guidelines set by the university’s crisis committee and the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF), which will also be supplemented by HERT and its three subcommittees, namely education, preparatory, and responsive operations.
The educational operations are responsible for the presentation and reinforcement of information; the preparatory operations are responsible for the scheming of necessary action plans; and the responsive operations will provide instantaneous response and assistance.
Moreover, the SUSG believes it would be better or more efficient if the coordination will be done on a college level. Reambonanza said that each course or college will have its protocols according to the needs of its course.
According to Reambonanza, the best way to mobilize the said coordination is for the SUSG to collaborate with the League of Governors (LOG), headed by SUSG Vice President Shem Barinaga, which is made up of the governors of different student councils in each college.
“I feel like the SUSG can extend their help to the LOG in terms of trying to maintain or manage the F2F classes,” she remarked.
The SUSG promised that when everything is already finalized, they will tap the different committees to brainstorm on what to do, including the organizing of different programs and events should F2F classes start.
“As of now, we don’t have any concrete plans because we are on the cautious side of what could happen. We don’t want to set anything on stone because it could be easily scrapped out,” said Reambonanza.
