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darwinforthewin · 3 years

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The ‘ANIMO’ spirit in times of crisis

When COVID-19 landed in the Philippines, everything was forced to stop. All restaurants, parks, schools, malls, and other establishments have been closed, people stopped working, and everybody is stuck in their houses. However, it did not stop De Lasalle University from working on its progress towards achieving its goals despite unfortunate circumstances brought by the virus contagion. The institution made an immediate and flexible response to the needs of its students and became one of the first to adopt online learning and led the way for the future of education. More so, De La Salle University created further developed strategies to combat the foreseen obstacles of the pandemic. These strategies come along with not just the abbreviation but the meaning of their long-lived battle cry and spirit, the “Animo La Salle!”

As a shift towards the new normal, De La Salle University came up with ANIMO with which each letter corresponds to a specific strategy. These strategies stand for accompaniment, niches, impact, ministry, and opening. The first strategy, accompaniment, talks about a commitment of the institution to enhancing faculty-student engagement, practical assessment, and comprehensive support for all its stakeholders. Niches emphasize the support for graduates and faculty to have augmented toolkits for pandemic proof research methods to ensure minimum destruction to pipelines and increase social engagement towards a shared future. Impact gears towards the expansion of industry networks to further professionalize advancement and provide challenge-based learning programs in the transition to digital platforms. Ministry aims for the institution to build projects that promote sustainability, resiliency, security, and evidence-based approaches to improve service amidst the pandemic. Lastly, opening focuses on DLSU’s long-term planning and developing protocols for safe study and work, planning for disaster, recovery, mission continuity, and migration of key online services.

These strategies serve as weapons of De La Salle University to help students and the community fight and survive the repercussions in the face of the pandemic. Each of the well-developed strategies of De La Salle University focuses on a particular aspect of the community's needs. Nevertheless, one of the strategies contributes to maintaining DLSU’s position as a top university in the Philippines. This strategy is accompaniment. One of the big factors that put DLSU in the world rankings is the quality of its curriculum or the academic reputation and employer reputation. As aforementioned, accompaniment helps the students of DLSU acquire meaningful and valuable blended curriculum by maximizing faculty-student interaction as well as providing evidence-based assessments that strengthen students’ self-learning and independence. Not only that, according to, the constant element for the school is its faculty and their contributions that made it to the world ranking. With this, accompaniment is what differentiates DLSU from other institutions and it is what will push the university’s quality of education further to the betterment.

Impact also comes vital when it comes to establishing DLSU’s international reputation and prestige. This is for the reason that Impact enables the university to expand its network of industry partners. The bigger the network is, the more people De La Salle University is connected to; hence, the more established the name of the university becomes. More so, it is aimed towards working for a shared goal and interests with partners so, in effect, it increases the university’s social value and reputation. If De La Salle university gives importance and value to its people, so do its people care about it. The impacts of DLSU to the community also represent its legacies; therefore, they not only make the university gain prestige but they also leave a trail for other institutions or other people to follow and to continue their journey in the future.

Despite all these, do these strategies really help an individual become a true Lasallian Business Leader? There are three broad business objectives embodied in "The Vocation of the Business Leader”: Good Goods (contribute to the common good), Good Work (dignity of human work), and Good Wealth (stewardship and just). The DLSU strategic plan promotes all these three objectives. DLSU offers a high quality of education and fosters character formation, professional development, culture, and support which satisfies the objective of contributing to the common good (Good goods). The fact that DLSU continues to expand its research and to connect with partners and industry to localize UN Sustainable Development Goals is a manifestation of human dignity in work (Good Work). The formation of BITUIN and the building of other projects to promote sustainability, resiliency, security and evidence-based approaches for the benefit of the community, students and other stakeholders is proof of just distribution of wealth; thus, satisfying the objective of stewardship and just (Good Wealth).

Below is the SWOT analysis of De La Salle University in the face of the pandemic. De La Salle University plays its chances of around 85% of success in realizing the key strategies of the plan. As shown in the table, De La Salle University may have strengths and opportunities that it can use as leverage but it also has considerable weaknesses and threats that may hinder the institution from achieving its goals at minimum effort. Moreover, the pandemic limitations have resulted in a significant decline in the welfare and economy of the country and it is continuously causing more complications and risks for all sectors of the society. For De La Salle University to effectively execute the key strategies of its plan, the institution must be able to eliminate or improve on them. This may take a long road for DLSU but it will surely be all worth the journey in the end.

Strengths

● Human Resource Management (Value Chain Analysis) – Based on the ranking criteria for top universities, DLSU rates 26.9 in employee reputation which is relatively high compared to other Philippines universities (QS TopUniversities, 2020).

● Technology Development (Value Chain Analysis) – DLSU’s constant development and publication of science and research makes the university one of the country’s most productive research institutions (BMPlus, 2020).

● Marketing and Sales (Value Chain Analysis) – DLSU uses evidence-based approach to provide high quality of education so as to enhance character and professional development.

● Service (Value Chain Analysis) – All DLSU degrees programs are designed to be modern, future-proof, and rooted in the best tradition of Lasallian education (Times Higher Education, 2020).

● Service (Value Chain Analysis) – DLSU’s use of internet platforms promotes remote learning where users can access education and be able to communicate with each other anytime and anywhere or even at the comfort of their houses.

Weaknesses

● Technology Development (Value Chain Analysis) – DLSU often takes time fixing occurring technical issues over its systems (Animospace, MyLaSalle) regarding enlistment, enrollment, payment and many more that cause some conflicts among students.

● Service (Value Chain Analysis) – The administration does not quickly respond to students’ concerns over electronic emails which dissatisfies effective faculty-student engagement and customer service.

● Technology Development (Value Chain Analysis) – DLSU is still new to utilizing online learning platforms and is still in the process of making adjustments to further enhance education for all students.

● Human Resource Management (Value Chain Analysis) – There are some aged professors and faculty staff who are not inclined to using advanced technologies.

AREAS OF CONSIDERATION

Opportunities

● Buyer Power (Porters) – DLSU has its name established and renowned as a top university in the Philippines next to UP; thus, more students are willing to pursue degree programs in DLSU than in other universities (Top Universities, 2020).

● Technological (Pestle) – DLSU opens door to cross enrollees through the Lasallian Open Online-learning Program where students from partner schools, state colleges, and other education institutions are allowed to take DLSU courses that are not available at their home school amidst the pandemic (GMA News Online, 2020).

● Threat of New Entry (Pestle) – Since the country is currently experiencing an economic crisis plus the mobility limitations as a result of the pandemic, it becomes more difficult to build schools as how difficult it is to reopen some.

● Social (Pestle) – DLSU cares about students who are having emotional stress and cannot comply with requirements amidst the pandemic thus, they are not given any failing grade but a deferred grade or a retake of the course.

● Threat of Substitutes (Porters) - When it comes to learning, especially in a pandemic, there are hardly any alternatives or substitutes for acquiring education aside from online learning. The shutting down of schools, and other establishments have forced people to shift from physical classroom to technological interactive learning platforms to ensure safety and convenience (Contreras, 2020).

AREAS OF CONSIDERATION

Threats.

● Competitive Rivalry (Porters) – The competition in this industry is high in terms of providing education amidst the pandemic as most educational institutions are already starting to adopt online learning platforms to engage with students (Mocon-Ciriaco, 2020).

● Social (Porters) – As virus contagion continues to grow in the country, an increasing number of people get physically and mentally sick which causes a loss of focus to many students during online classes (Malindog-Uy, 2020).

● Economical (Pestle) – Due to the country’s lockdown, many people have lost their jobs and are struggling to gain resources to sustain their family’s needs. Thus, many students may be forced to stop from their school to help their families save money and provide the necessities to survive (Torres, 2020).

● Environmental (Pestle) – The pandemic quarantine limitations prohibit DLSU and other universities from performing physical learning and forces them to gear towards online platforms (Magsambol, 2020).

● Technological (Pestle) – a large percentage of students in the Philippines do not have reliable internet connection; hence, a large number of students are not able to access online education as efficiently and effective as can be (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2020).

One of the objectives of the DLSU strategic plan focuses on being able to support and provide support to vulnerable members of the community. This is being able to form meaningful relationships among students and create a meaningful and valuable blended curriculum during these times of crisis. With this formation of culture and support environment present in DLSU, it allows us to grow into becoming good business leaders for the future. One of the RVRCOB Code of Ethics is to be able to promote a humane and enabling the work community within the organization. This correlates with growing up in a community wherein we can create meaningful relationships that support one another as it also follows by focusing on helping others beyond my interests.

As I continue to study at De La Salle University, I am confident that I have learned a variety of lessons and values both in life and academics. There are also more things that I know am yet to discover in the university. DLSU has enabled me to gain memorable experiences with friends and classmates. Moreover, I enjoyed the challenges and opportunities provided by diverse organizations and cultures. By joining events of organizations, I was able to help raise funds for the marginalized, especially for partner public schools. DLSU has pushed me to go beyond my comfort zone and molded me into becoming a potential leader to represent the school in sharing the values and knowledge with other people. DLSU has taught me to love the people around me regardless of gender, race, culture, religion, etc. Being able to learn the culture and values of De La Salle University is what I consider to be my unique contribution to its success in achieving its objectives. Because of these experiences, I have become a potential inheritor of what DLSU taught me. As a DLSU student, I am contributing not only as a messenger, spreading all the knowledge and values but also as a catalyst for change.

REFERENCES:

BMPlus. (2020, March 5). DLSU is most productive Philippine university in research: BMPlus. Business Mirror. https://businessmirror.com.ph/2020/03/05/dlsu-is-most-productive-philippine-university-in-research/.

Contreras, A. (2020, April 18). Online Learning is the future of education and DLSU is learning the way. The Manila Times. https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/04/18/opinion/columnists/topanalysis/online-learning-is-the-future-of-education-and-dlsu-is-leading-the-way/715275/

De La Salle University. (2020, September 18). Times Higher Education (THE). https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/de-la-salle-university.

De La Salle University. (2020, November 9). Top Universities. https://www.topuniversities.com/universities/de-la-salle-university/undergrad.

Magsino, D. (2020, June 17). COVID-19 shows need for Philippines to invest more in science, technology, says expert. GMA News Online. https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/743072/covid-19-shows-need-for-philippines-to-invest-more-on-science-technology-says-expert/story/.

Philippine Daily Inquirer. (2020, May 1). Students worry about online learning due to slow PH internet. Philippine Inquirer. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1267743/students-worry-about-online-learning-due-to-slow-ph-internet

Magsambol, B. (2020, June 8). DepEd postpones face-to-face classes until COVID-19 vaccines is available. Rappler. https://www.rappler.com/nation/deped-postpones-face-to-face-classes-covid-19-vaccine-available

Torres, J. (2020, August 17). Millions suffer job loss in Philippines due to pandemic, survey says. Licas News. https://www.licas.news/2020/08/17/millions-suffer-job-loss-in-philippines-due-to-pandemic-survey-says/

Malindog-Uy, A. (2020, July 19). COVID-19 Impact on Mental Health of Filipinos. The ASEAN Post. https://theaseanpost.com/article/covid-19-impact-mental-health-filipinos

Mocon-Ciriaco, C. (2020, October 8). The impossible is possible: Covid shut down schools, but learning goes on. Business Mirror. https://businessmirror.com.ph/2020/10/08/the-impossible-is-possible-covid-shut-down-schools-but-learning-goes-on/

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