THE UST Faculty of Arts and Letters (AB) administration is seeking to occupy more classrooms for other Artlets programs in the Buenaventura Garcia Paredes, O.P. (BGPOP) building.
In an interview with The Flame, Artlets Dean Prof. Melanie Turingan said plans for the possible expansion of AB in BGPOP are underway.
“We are lobbying and asking the FMO (Facilities Management Office) and Office of the Vice Rector for Academic Affairs (OVRAA) if we could use another floor of the BGPOP since we were already using them pre-pandemic,” Turingan said.
“And who will be accommodated there? We are fixing the loading as early as now so students and (students with irregular schedule) will not face any issues with their classes…We are laying these out as early as now to prepare and avoid inconvenience, including those taking special terms,” she added.
The Faculty of Arts and Letters has 3,510 enrolled students for the second term of the academic year 2023-2024.
Only the Department of Communication and Media Studies, composed of the journalism and communication programs, uses classrooms in BGPOP on the 11th floor.
Communication and journalism students previously had their classes at the St. Raymund de Peñafort building but were transferred to BGPOP in 2020.
Some have speculated that the relocation was due to classroom shortages and the separation of the department from AB as an independent institute. However, Turingan said the move was meant to provide media-oriented programs access to audio, video and production facilities found in the Communications Bureau on the 12th floor of BGPOP.
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The dean noted that AB had already been using BGPOP before the pandemic but only on selected floors to accommodate other offices that were relocated to the building due to renovations.
“Before, it was the 10th floor and the 11th floor, but you may notice (we’re only using) the 11th floor for now…so since the renovations are almost finished, I am appealing to them (FMO and OVRAA) for us to hopefully be given the opportunity to use (more classrooms in BGPOP),” Turingan said.
Also housed in BGPOP is the College of Tourism and Hospitality Management, which occupies classrooms from 4th to 7th floors. The UST senior high school students first held their classes in the building in 2016 before they were transferred to the 22-story Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati building in 2019.
Completed in 2014, the 12-story Buevanetura Garcia Paredes, O.P. building was named after the former UST professor and master of the Dominican Order who was martyred during the religious persecution in Spain in 1936. F
