STUDENT groups and faculty members of the University of the East appealed to school officials to reconsider the disqualification of more than 1,000 scholarship applications for the second semester of Academic Year 2020-2021.

The University Student Council, Central Student Council and Faculty Association said that many learners considered the scholarship grants as their “only hope to continue education in the institution.”

“In light of the unwarranted removal of more than one thousand academic scholars in the middle of the semester during the continuing of economic downfall, the student body and the faculty union are appealing before the Board of Trustees, through you, or the rightful grant of academic scholarships to all candidates that had been supposedly disqualified,” the groups said in a letter to Dr. Lucio Tan, chairman of the university.

The students said that despite the hardships brought by the pandemic, they worked hard to achieve academic excellence during the first semester of Academic Year 2020-2021 but the university changed the scholarship policy without any formal notification or warning to students.

“This is in contrast to the standard exercise of the policy in which the failing mark in only the most recent semester would have been considered,” they said.

UE President Ester Garcia earlier said that scholars must “at all times meet all the conditions” including the required general weighted average and academic load of at least 18 units.

However, the groups asserted that any change in policy must be consulted with the stakeholders first “as they are against any revision made in the middle of the school year without proper consultation.”

“No change must be implemented in the current semester, and the University, consequently, must now adhere to the same policy that has been in effect prior to the most recent enrollment period,” the groups said.

“The UE-FA and the Student Councils stand in solidarity — working hand-in-hand in the best interest of the faculty, the studentry, and the University. Our common goal is to uphold the good image of this honorable institution, not destroy it,” they said.

“We must ensure that the only viable course of action would be the one that would not lead to the vitiation of rights and welfare,” they added.