MITCH M. LIPA
More than 500 students of the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod City will be part of the limited face to face classes in two colleges starting November 22.
USLS Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Dr. Annabelle Balor, said that only the School of Medicine and the College of Nursing will start the in-person learning since these courses belong to the first set allowed by the Commission on Higher Education.
The school requires students to be vaccinated in order to participate in the face to face learning. For the School of Nursing, only the 3rd and 4th year students will be involved since they have laboratory requirements.
Out of the 452 students enrolled, only 385 will participate in face to face sessions, and students not yet vaccinated can only attend those subjects with lectures.
For the School of Medicine, 176 fully vaccinated students, out of the 179 enrolees in first, second, and fourth years, want to participate in the in-person class sessions and in subjects with laboratories in the school.
The USLS has initiated its own vaccination program, and around 67 percent of the total population of students, faculty members, admin staff, and nonteaching personnel have been vaccinated.
Balor said that of the 7,961 USLS students, 5,334 were already vaccinated, or 79 percent. Of the 454 faculty members in colleges and postgraduate schools, 371 were fully vaccinated or 79 percent, while out of the 103 nonteaching staff, 91 were already vaccinated, or 88 percent.
On Nov. 19, the fourth batch of USLS vaccine recipients will get the shots against the coronavirus.
Balor said the school was granted permission to hold in-person classes Nov. 8 after the task force held a virtual evaluation Nov. 4. The task force was composed of representatives from the regional offices of the Department of Health, Department of the Interior and Local Government, CHEd, and the Bacolod City government.
The University is still working on the requirements needed for the evaluation of its Engineering Technology, Tourism, and Hospitality Management courses.
USLS was the first Bacolod school given approval to conduct in-person classes for selected courses. In Negros Occidental, Southland College in Kabankalan City and the Northern Negros State College Science and Technology in Sagay City were also granted permission to resume face to face learning. — MML
