BACOLOD CITY – The Carlos Hilado Memorial State College (CHMSC) and the Central Philippines State University in Negros Occidental have received grants totaling PHP41.163 million under the Smart Campus Development project of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).
On Thursday, the CHMSC headed by president Norberto Mangulabnan, representing the Visayas, gave a project presentation with other state universities and colleges (SUCs) in Luzon and Mindanao, during a virtual press conference led by CHED Chairperson Prospero de Vera III.
With four campuses, the CHMSC received a grant of PHP23.163 million to establish the College-wide Network Infrastructure Project.
“For this, we are extremely grateful to our national officials, the lawmakers, the CHED. We also thank everyone in the institution for coming up with this enhancement project,” Mangulabnan said.
The project focuses on a system-wide infrastructure program or campus area network in the main campus in Talisay City together with those in Alijis and Fortune Towne in Bacolod City, and in Binalbagan town with faster voice, video, and data service, decreased network traffic, and reduced access latency.
It is seen to create an immediate impact in the current adaptive and flexible learning experience or AFLEX by providing easy access to the internet with faster connectivity and wider coverage.
Mangulabnan said that all current copper cables will be replaced with fiber optic cables and highly-upgraded network appliances and equipment will be installed.
Also, to sustain and maximize the lifespan of the network appliances, the infrastructure will be housed in a secured and airconditioned environment with an uninterrupted and regulated power supply in all of the campuses.
“Primarily for students, this will re-shape how they study, how they learn, what they learn, and how they interact with their fellow learners, and teachers and mentors under a better normal,” Mangulabnan said, adding that through the project, the CHMSC envisions to “provide a more effective and efficient centralized framework that links systems and makes it easy to teach, learn and do things better.”
Meanwhile, the CPSU has received a PHP18-million grant to establish the One CPSU, One Network project, an advanced network of systems that aims to centralize institutional online processes that will allow its extension campuses to virtually connect to the main campus in Kabankalan City.
As a digital infrastructure, the centralized online transaction ensures the promotion of efficient, time and cost-saving inter-campus transactions, enrolment, classes, and training that guarantee a huge impact on the CPSU, its clientele, and the communities it serves.
The project seeks to enhance five major priority areas to amplify and streamline the university’s vital internal processes, including Learning Management System, Online Enrolment System, Online Registrar Portal, Document Management System, and Student Application Processing System.
The Online Enrolment System is projected to improve CPSU’s enrolment process to cater to the needs of students through online transaction, specifically on the grading system, student subjects taken, request of documents, and other student-related transactions.
In a statement, CPSU president Aladino Moraca said the project is a proactive initiative in the Learning Management System that addresses the digital divide among its satellite campuses mainly in the efficient and effective conduct of distance learning, transactions, training, and seminars for essential and extension services.
“Passing this project means ensuring that CPSU will be a Smart University in the next 10 to 15 years. The promising and impact-driven outcomes it will provide to the institution and the community will make a huge difference to the kind of services we provide to our clientele as we hold firm to our commitment to a quality management system,” he added. (PNA)
By Nanette Guadalquiver
Philippine News Agency