A Proposal for a

University of the Philippines-Diliman

Academic Planner

Submitted by:

Julie Em Botor

Kyzeth dela Cruz

Seline Alyssa Nadal

Rey Rusty Quides

Submitted to:

Prof. Maria Lorena Santos

English 30

University of the Philippines, Diliman

March 23, 2012

Introduction

Planning is an important aspect of our everyday lives. We may not be aware of it

and even take it for granted, but we plan almost everything and anything. For instance,

when buying from a grocery store, a person has to do a checklist of the things he/she

needs to buy in order to avoid overspending or loss of precious time from deciding which

to buy. Furthermore, planning may be as simple as choosing which route to take or place

to eat.

According to Webster’s New World College Dictionary, a planner is a person

who makes plans. And in order to aid this person in planning, a planner is used,

specifically a small calendar, typically in the form of a booklet, with space at each date

for listing appointments and activities (“planner”). However, a regular planner is different

from an academic planner in a sense that it does not follow the same year interval. A

regular planner follows the standard year, which begins in January and ends in

December, while an academic planner is especially made for students in way that it

follows the academic year, which starts in June and ends in May. Although they are

similar in a sense that they both serve as a diary, organizer, and a journal, an academic

planner has certain features that may be helpful for students like a list of school events

and other important dates and places to take note of.

The University of the Philippines-Diliman (UPD) offers a variety of merchandises

to its students including an academic planner. By focusing on the needs of the student

body, this planner is particularly made to help them not only to organize their lives as a

student of the university, but also to serve as a journal and preserve all the memories they

had for that academic year. Aside from being an organizer, journal, and a diary, the UPD

Academic Planner includes some specified schedules only followed in the university, like

dropping schedules, hell weeks, school events, etc. Also, it includes other important

information such as the map of the campus, important numbers to call in case of

emergency, and places to eat or study.

In line with this, we, E-cubed, is presenting our proposed University of the

Philippines (UPD) Academic Planner for the next academic year 2012-2013.

Objectives

The main objective of this proposal is to create a planner tailored for the needs of

University of the Philippines-Diliman (UPD) students. In order to create this, we need to

develop a student-friendly planner which aims to provide ease in keeping up with their

student life.

Details of the content of the planner are UP campus-centered to give it that feel of

belongingness and school spirit. Moreover, the planner contains jargons, events, places,

etc. that only the UP community understands and is part of. Hence, we are very sure that

this planner will be helpful for UP students.

Rationale

There are three (3) rationales for the proposal of the UPD Academic Planner,

these are:

● To promote school-spirit;

● To supplement the fundraising efforts of the University Student Council (USC);

● To ensure the continuity of production of the UPD Academic Planner.

Buying UP merchandises such as an academic planner is another way of

demonstrating school-spirit since it gives the person an identity which shows and affirms

that they belong to this community. Also, the population of the campus is increasing each

year and in order to support the programs and projects of the USC, they engage in

fundraising events. This proposal of an academic planner, wherein all UP students are

potential buyers, would help them increase their funds. Furthermore, to ensure that an

academic planner will be available for the next academic year, this proposed UPD

Academic Planner is given to the USC.

List of Works Cited

"planner." Webster's New World College Dictionary. Web. 19 Mar. 2012

<http :// www . yourdictionary . com / planner >.

Concept of the UP Diliman Academic Planner

I. Design

1. Front and Back Cover

For the cover, the proponents of this proposal opted for a simple yet sophisticated

design. Possible color combinations may be red and black, gold and black, white and

black, and silver and black.

II. Features

1. Information page

The proposed template for information page is the UP ID -- something that is

relevant and that is in line with the concept of making the planner distinctively for the

students of the university.

2. Calendar

Instead of using the standard year, we will use the academic year and divide it

into three. The first part would be for the first semester, starting from June until October;

the second part would be for the second semester, from November until March, and the

last would be for summer.

3. Map

According to dictionary.com, a cognitive map is a mental map of one's environment;

this is what we will be using for the map in the planner. We want it to look like a doodle or a

drawing of a kid and make it the least bit technical; this will make the map more fun-looking and

very easy to read.

4. Lists

The lists that will be included in the planner would be of places where people

could go to study (libraries), to eat (cafeterias, food kiosks), to “tambay”, to sleep, and to

park their cars. A list of buildings that are along the routes of all the jeepneys (Ikot, Toki,

Pantranco, SM North, Katipunan, Philcoa) that go through and around the campus would

also be included.

5. Trackers

The trackers in the planner would be for keeping track of the absences and the

“lates” of a student for all of his/her classes. A table for the class schedule would be used

with two extra columns on the side for tallying the absences and the “lates”.

6. Monthly Calendar

This part of the planner is a concept for monthly dividers. This page will serve as

an indicator for the month ahead. It will consist of the two pages of a spread page in the

planner. The left side will be a graphic page and the right side will be the monthly

calendar. The graphic page will not only consist of graphics but for the most part helpful

tips on campus or university student life survival will be incorporated into this page. The

calendar will be of landscape orientation to allow for more space in the boxes for the

dates. The reason for this is that some planner users like to see how dates pan out in

weeks to help in planning their days in weeks and to also allow them to see the coming

weeks of that month. Below is an illustration of how we envision this page to look like

and also a listing of ideas for student tips that could be used for this part of the planner.

Twelve monthly graphics page ideas:

June

- Registration flow/instructions (note: this is for UP in General, some college

units may have slight differences)

- Registration tips

July

- Creating your own shorthand

- Some notes on the universal standard shorthand

August

- How to stay awake in class

- How to pull all-nighters

- Studying 101

September

- What to do during the semestral break

- Where you can go (interesting/budget-friendly places) for sembreak

October

- A dark graphic page that simply says HELL MONTH!!!

November

- How to pull yourself out of vacation mode

December

- Party Hard. Study Harder! (How to organize a student’s time amidst the

December parties and events in school and the anticipation for the holidays to still have

time for studies)

January

- How to lose extra/unwanted/left-over holiday weight by using a study regimen

February

- Love vs. Acads: How to balance love life and Acad life

March

- A graphic for: ligth at the end of the tunnel (used for the sample above)

April

- How to make the most out of your summer, be it in summer classes or in

vacationing

May

- Preparing for next academic year; you have survived a whole academic year in

UPD

7. Weekly Planner

The weekly planner is the ‘meat’ of this proposed planner. This part is where

most of the pages will be dedicated to. After each monthly calendar will be four spread

pages of the weekly planner.

The above image is an illustration of the proposed lay-out for this part. At the top

left-hand side will be the month and year of that week and on the other side will be an

inspirational or a quirky quote to help motivate students or give them a quote to ponder

on or live by for the week and all the coming weeks of the academic year (ex. ‘Unless

someone like you cares a whole awful lot. Nothing’s going to get better, it’s not’ from

Dr. Seuss in the Lorax).

In the left-most part of the spread page is the list part where it is proposed for

different kinds of list to be put in some examples are the weekly hit list (students can

make use of this in any way they please), the grocery list, the to-do list, the wish list and

the mission list. The tickers for the list is made out to be fun and unlike the usual lists that

are currently around (i.e. for the hit list the ticker would say killed and for the mission list

it will say accomplished). On the other side of the page, the right-most part, there will be

an expenses or budget tracker depending on how the user will use the space. This is

incorporated in the planner and in the weekly planner particularly because as students are

the target market for the planner, it is taken into consideration that they live on budgets

and most of them in a weekly basis. Living on a budget can be tricky and so to the budget

or expenses tracker will be a big help to the planner’s user.

The daily boxes will contain trivia, event, holidays and deadlines. The planner

will already have important UPD events and deadlines plugged into the days in the

weekly planner as well as official national holidays. Also, it will be incorporated with

days worth noting like the world AIDS day, the Earth hour day and such. Furthermore

there will be trivia about the University and notable people from the university (like, on

this day in the year xxxx, the Malcolm Hall was built or on this day Sen. Miriam

Defensor Santiago was Ms. PolSc in a campus beauty contest) and on other days where

there are no such trivia, holiday, deadline or event, some random interactive games,

suggestions or questions will be put in (like, Katipuna Food Trip Friday with Friends, Tic

Tac Toe Saturday with Roomies or a question like, have you smiled at your seatmate

today?).

8. Semestral Pages

At the end of every semester (i.e. October, March, May), the proposed planner

would have a couple of pages before the next month. The first would be a page for

‘people of the sem’ these are for new friends made in classes that semester or for

Professors and classmates. It is in general a page for people that have made that semester

a fun and unforgettable one. The second page will be a grades tracker. This page will help

in tracking your grades for that semester because grades are in fact a good motivation for

students to keep up the good work for the next semesters or in some cases to work harder.

9. Coupons

In the latter pages of the proposed planner, coupons will be available. Two (2)

kinds of coupon will be part of it. The first one is the discount coupon. The student

council can use these coupons as part of their marketing strategy and to help them

establish relationship and collaborations in the businesses in and around the campus.

Another one is a friend coupon. These coupons can be used to lighten up their day. For

example, a bear hug coupon. It can be given to a friend and when they need someone to

hug them, they can give it back to you and you will give them a hug.

10. Important Numbers

In the last page of the planner, important contact details in the campus are listed.

If there are questions or emergencies, students can contact the UP offices, the University

Student Council or their college administration.

III. Materials and Costs

The proposed materials for this planner are:

1. Acid Free Paper - They are more costly however they are better to write on than most papers and they can help preserve what is written on them for a long time. As this proposed planner could serve as a memento or a journal of sorts for a student’s university life, the acid free paper will be a better choice than opting for ordinary and less costly papers.

2. Recycled Cardboard/Stiff board - Despite rumors that they are frail, recycled cardboards or stiff boards as some may call them are in fact hardy materials. They are also less costly than non-recycled boards.

3. Scrap Denim - This material is for the optional planner jacket.

Unit Production Cost

I. Cost of Materialsa. Papers P 75.00b. Recycled cardboard/stiff board P 25.00c. *Denim jacket(protector) P 25.00

II. Cost of Productiona. Printing P100.00b. Design P100.00

TOTAL P300.00*P325.00

* Optional** Based on the breakdown of costs per planner above, our suggested retail or

selling price for this proposed planner is P350.00 and P375.00 for those who opt to buy them with the optional denim jacket.

 

 E3

 Room 138 Palma Hall, University of the Philippines, Diliman

Quezon City, Philippines 1101 Eng30_Ecube@yahoo.com

March 23, 2012

Maria Lorena SantosProfessor, Department of English and Comparative LiteratureCollege of Arts and Letters, University of the Philippines, DilimanQuezon City, Philippines

Dear Prof. Santos:

We submit herewith the proposal paper entitled, “A Proposal for a University of the Philippines-Diliman Academic Planner”,  as fulfillment of a requirement for the English 30 course this 2nd semester of the academic year 2011 - 2012.

This proposal is intended for the University Student Council to add to their fund raising projects. We are proposing ideas on reinventing the current UP Academic Planner and on making it more tailored for UP Diliman students. Attached herewith are the details for said proposal.

We hope that this proposal will interest you and will meet your approval. Thank you.

Very truly yours,

Julie Em Botor Kyzeth dela Cruz Seline Alyssa Nadal      Rey Rusty Quides

Enc