SCIENCE CITY OF MUÑOZ – Students of the Central Luzon State University (CLSU) here no longer have the “F” in their class schedules.
That’s because Friday classes had been blurted out in the schedule of classes in this state university here. Thus, the students are now only talking of M-W (Monday-Wednesday) and T-Th (Tuesday-Thursday) class schedules.
Fridays have actually become “Fly-days” in the university which is a term applied for the day when some students usually absent themselves from class.
“We are implementing a four-day week for our classes and most of our offices,” Dr. Ruben Sevilleja, CLSU president said.
He said the decision to remove Friday from the class schedules and office work, which was approved by the CLSU board of regents, was for cost-saving measure.
“We want the university to be relieved of the burden of paying big amount for our electricity bill,” Sevilleja said. “We will be saving at least P500,000 a month due to the shortened days of classes and works in our university and use it for other services,” he added.
He said the university, which has a compound of 658 hectares with a self-contained community inside it, spends from P3 million to P 3.2 million for its monthly electric bill.
Sevilleja said the monthly electric bill is a big amount taken from the university budget which has not increased in the last few years although the university’s services expanded due to big enrollment and new programs and projects.
The university’s enrollment is currently at 9,800 with many of the students living in dormitories and other lodging places on campus.
Sevilleja also said that although the students will have continuous class schedules from 7:00 in the morning to 7:00 in the evening with only short breaks, they welcomed the shortened days of classes.
He said it would mean less expense for transportation and food for the students and they have more opportunities to help their parents for the works they carry out for a living.
As for office works of the staff members, only those working in the university’s security force, infirmary, research and development, grounds’ maintenance and improvement, and water and electricity services will be required to work on Fridays, he said.
Otherwise, Sevilleja said, Friday to Sunday is now a week-end in CLSU.
He said some other state universities and colleges in the country have already resorted to shortening of class days programming basically for cost-saving measure.
