Architecture sets changes in curriculum, tests, uniform

EXAM departmentalization, new curriculum and uniform are the major changes coming next school year as the College of Architecture (CA) “hopes to change for the better.”

New CA Dean John Joseph Fernandez told the Varsitarian that the changes are expected to improve the performances of the students and faculty members and upgrade the college.

The new curriculum includes three new elective subjects—Heritage Conservation, Landscape Architecture and Interior Design. Calculus, which used to be divided into Integral and Deferential are now merged as one subject and to be taken in one semester. The subject called Solid Mensuration, which used to be taught during the 1980’s in UST, is restored in the curriculum.

“The nice thing about the new curriculum is that most of the changes are already practiced in our third-year level and most of the professors that Ched consulted in the making of the curriculum were Thomasians,” Fernandez said.

All architecture schools are given three years to comply with the new standardized curriculum set by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). CA will implement the renovated curriculum in June 2008.

Exams will be “departmentalized” in order to rationalize them. Departmentalization means the exam for a particular subject will be given on specific date and time to prevent students of one class leaking the exam to students of another class taking the exam later, Fernandez said.

Moreover, professors of the same subject must submit their preferred questionnaires to the department coordinator who will compile and combine them for uniformity. Thus, there will only be one set of exam. With their new uniform, Architecture students will now “look like corporate professionals”, Fernandez said.

Effective this school year, male students will have an additional maroon coat while the females will wear a newly-designed blouse, which will be partnered with a coat and black pants. The new uniform was agreed upon by the Student Council and the administration.

“With the addition of the maroon coat, our students would look like corporate professionals,” Fernandez said.

Freshmen will be asked to wear the new uniform while the sophomores, juniors and seniors can choose whether they want to stick to the old design or switch to the new one.

The change of the uniform was triggered by the complaints by women students that their uniform bore striking resemblance to that of another university in Manila.

The former uniform has a white blouse with the UST Architecture name plate attached on the upper left side for both men and women. Danielle Clara P. Dandan