Dear LST Students, Prospective Students and Religious Superiors,
Greetings from LST! Kumusta na kayo!
As of 1 June 2020, Metro Manila has been placed on General Community Quarantine. Employees of the University who need to perform essential services have been allowed to report to work. Our LST employees themselves have resumed work. However, at this time, the Ateneo de Manila Campus is still closed to non-essential staff, faculty and students. We will inform you when access to campus will have been restored by University officials.
Despite the challenges we are all facing due to the pandemic, we look forward with hope and determination, armed with creativity, in pursuing our mission of theological and ministerial formation. I write to provide you all with some updates on LST, with focus on our preparations for the opening of Academic Year 2020-2021.
1. Schedule of the Academic Year 2020-2021
As announced in our LST website (www.lst.edu), all classes in the Intersession and First Semester of AY 2020-2021 will be conducted fully online. Students will not come physically to LST for classes. Depending on the state of the pandemic, second semester classes will still be online but with the possibility of blending with face-to-face teaching. The academic year’s schedule will be as follows:
Intersession: July 6 to August 12, 2020
First Semester: August 27 to December 18, 2020
Second Semester: mid January to end of May 2021 (exact dates to be announced)
The standard curricula of LST’s various degree and non-degree programs will remain intact. They can be viewed here:
https://www.lst.edu/academics/ecclesiastical-degrees
https://www.lst.edu/academics/civil-degrees
https://www.lst.edu/academics/non-degree-programs
Though all courses will be on an online format, Monday to Saturday class schedules will still be maintained, to be announced here by the end of June 2020:Â https://www.lst.edu/academics/course-announcements
2. Deadline for Applications and Procedures
Deadlines for application to LST’s various programs as well as application procedures can be viewed here:
LST will accept international offshore enrollees who might not be able to enter the country for various reasons.
Only for this First Semester, the Bulatao Center Entrance Examinations and LST English Proficiency Tests will be waived for all applicants to the degree and non-degree programs. The TOEFL will be waived as well for international STB, STL and STD applicants this First Semester. However, the TOEFL will still be required for applicants to the civil degree Masters and Doctoral Programs.
3. First Semester Advisement and Enlistment
The schedule is as follows:
- 15 July 2020 (Wednesday): Self-Advisement in https://isis.lst.edu/ (All LST Students)
- 17 August 2020 (Monday, 9:00 am): Online Enlistment of Advised Courses in https://isis.lst.edu/ (All LST Students)
- 18-21 August 2020 (Tuesday-Friday): Ateneo Civil Degree Online Registration in AISIS https://aisis-r1.ateneo.edu/j_aisis/displayLogin.do (Master, MA, PhD, DMin)
4. Preparations for LST Online Classes
In order to prepare the entire learning community of LST to go online, we have organized the following:
a) Faculty Training: In the months of June, July and early August, all faculty will participate in the “LST Training-Workshop for Online Teaching”. The training will involve appreciation of online education and the use of Adaptive Design for Learning Principles in preparing courses on Canvas as Learning Management Platform (www.canvas.net). Details of the program can be viewed here:Â https://www.lst.edu/community/news-a-features/1578-lst-faculty-training-workshop-for-online-teaching
b) Student Training: Two weeks before the opening of classes on 27 August, incoming and old students will be provided with an orientation in online learning, and in Canvas in particular.
Individuals and religious congregations that foresee extreme constraints in internet accessibility are requested to inform me so we can consider possible solutions (Â president@lst.edu).
5. Tuition and Fees
LST will not raise tuition rates this coming Academic Year. The following fees will also be waived: Class Notes Fee and Student Activity Fee.
Due to the pandemic and the shift to online learning, LST foresees financial constraints and added expenses as well (possible diminution of enrollment, loss of donations for externs’ use of facilities including canteen space; procurement of Canvas Learning Management Platform and student subscription, etc.).
Tuition rates: to be announced.
6. Mode of Tuition Payment
As a health security measure against COVID-19, LST for the meantime will not accept cash payments at the Cashier. Instead LST will accept payment of tuition and fees through deposit to our BPI bank account, or by credit card or check payment if and when the Ateneo campus gates reopen to the public after the Quarantine. Please click here for more details:Â https://www.lst.edu/community/news-a-features/1579-off-site-full-payment-of-lst-tuition-and-fees
7. LST Library Use
Policies for limited LST Library operations from June 1 to August 12 can be viewed here:
Please do email me in case you have inquiries.
As we face challenges that lie ahead, we firmly place our trust in the goodness of the Lord:Â “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us”.
I hope to see you soon!
Fr. Enrico C. Eusebio Jr. SJ
