By DM Lorena V. Narciso
S i l l i m a n University is postponing fee payments and is providing scholarships for students who were victims of recent calamities, a member of the administration said.
Mark Raygan Garcia, director of the Office of Information and Publication (OIP), said the fee suspension gives students a grace period to allow them more time to pay their tuition, dorm and fixed board fees with no surcharges.
“It is not something that we really impose on them. If these students, by the end of the semester, say they cannot pay, then the
university will have to asses and check from where we can secure some funds to address the concern,” Garcia said.
For the suspension of payments process, students can go directly to the university treasurer.
Aside from the fee suspension, the SU administration has also decided to provide scholarships as a form of financial help to the students.
“This has been created in a way that will benefit not only students that were affected now but students that will be affected in the future,” Garcia said.
However, Garcia added that the scholarship fund is “not yet available” as of the moment.
“In terms of application for the scholarship, they can go to the Office of Student Services [at the Oriental Hall]. They can talk to the dean of students, but in terms of the availability of the fund, that is yet to be created,” he said.
The administration is still looking for scholarship funding from alumni and is creating a set of criteria that will assess the applicants.
In the past months, the Philippines has experienced several calamities – the siege in Zamboanga, the 7.2 magnitude earthquake in
Bohol and typhoon Yolanda in Eastern Visayas.
As a form of financial help, the University of the Philippines is giving free tuition and a stipend of P10,000 to their students who were victims of Yolanda.
Phoebe G. Dexacada, an SU student taking up Master’s in Divinity, lost her home after typhoon Yolanda hit Tacloban City.
“I was hoping that the administration will also provide food allowances,” Dexacada said.
Junior mass communication student, Jae Nejudne, also a Yolanda victim from Tacloban City, said she too hoped for more help from the university.
“We would like to have free tuition just like U.P or some form of discount,” Nejudne said.
According to the registrar’s office a total of 51 students from Leyte and Samar are currently enrolled in SU.
