The return of the holiday greetings for new year!

Last Christmas, we allowed you to text any UPLB student. The messages you submitted were delivered a few minutes past 12 midnight of December 25.

Thank you for participating in the SOAD Holiday Greetings! Services such as this may seem out of hand to some but rest assured that things we do at SOAD undergo careful planning and development. Throughout the year, we have been testing our SMS facilities to further enhance our online services.

What have we found so far? We learned that the system we developed worked as expected. We are now able to send individual text messages at a prescribed date and time. The greetings we received from December 21 to 24 were all scheduled to be delivered at 11:59 PM of December 24. We also learned that the use of Account PINs is inconvenient especially because SystemOne is unavailable as we speak.

To continue our research in improving the OSAM System, we are again opening Holiday Greetings from December 28 to January 1.

There will be a few changes though. Since SystemOne is unavailable at this time, users can just text NEWYEAR to 091‑SOWAD‑500 (091‑76923‑500). Account PIN will be sent through SMS which must be entered in the form. Students who can login to OrgsUP may also retrieve their Account PINs from OrgsUP. They will be able to submit one message every eight hours for free. For more greeting codes, users can follow the prompt when allocation is consumed.

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Text Lines for Student Orgs

At SOAD, we know how much communication matters. That's why students can reach us by visiting the office, calling our office landline, texting through SOAD Mobile, emailing, and the fastest way to get our attention, posting through Magtanong.

Our desire to efficiently and effectively use communication and information technology to provide industry-level service led us to experimenting with the use of mobile phones as a mode of communication.

As the year ends, we are curious about what organizations have to say regarding org text lines. Of course, these text lines are not manual. We are approaching 2014 now and a lot of stuff in OSA are now computerized. So, think of it this way, someone can text a message to a certain number and the organization will be able to access the text messages in OrgsUP.

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We wish you a cheerful and lively Christmas!

The Student Organizations and Activities Division, Office of Student Affairs, and the Balsam Fir wish you a cheerful and lively Christmas!

Thank you for being happy that SOAD did not send you a card because we are alive and well! -Balsam Fir

On behalf of all the Balsam Fir that are well and alive today, we thank you for accepting our paperless Christmas greeting!

We wanted to send you greeting cards but when we saw these trees, words couldn't express our feelings as we see the joy in their leaves and branches. So, we hope that there are no hard feelings as we're not cutting them for cards!

Kidding aside, we think that helping our environment is the second best Christmas gift. The best Christmas gift was already given about 2,000 years ago.

We are happy to report that through your participation in this endeavor, we do not just help preserve our natural resources but we also have significantly reduced the paper usage at OSA which now results to less paper waste.

Thank you for being part of the second best Christmas gift! 

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List of UPLB UPCAT 2014 Passers By Degree

The UP Office of Admissions released the UPCAT results a few hours ago, two months earlier than in the previous years. The UPLB Office of Student Affairs congratulates all the UPLB UPCAT passers!

If you are an UPCAT passer, here's an interview with Jiggy Manicad about UPLB:

For the complete list of the UPCAT passers, visit http://upcat.up.edu.ph/results or the mirror sites at http://upcat.pregi.net/ and http://upcat.stickbread.net/.
Based on the UPCAT results, here are the top 10 degrees with most number of passers. NOTE: There is no competition here - the number of passers is based on the degree's quota.

#	Degree	Passers	Population Percentage
	DEGREE PROGRAM WITH AVAILABLE SLOT	553	21.81%
1	BS COMPUTER SCIENCE	184	7.26%
2	BS BIOLOGY	179	7.06%
3	BS DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION	135	5.33%
4	BS FOOD TECHNOLOGY	106	4.18%
5.5	BS CIVIL ENGINEERING (5 YRS)	101	3.98%
5.5	BS NUTRITION	101	3.98%
7	BS CHEMICAL ENGINEERING (5 YRS)	97	3.83%
8	BA COMMUNICATION ARTS	92	3.63%
9.5	BS ECONOMICS	90	3.55%
9.5	BS ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING (5 YRS)	90	3.55%

The total number of UPLB passers in the UPCAT results page is 2,535. The following is the complete list of all the UPLB UPCAT passers.

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Greet UPLB students this holiday season

On the 25th, SOAD will deliver your holiday message to any UPLB student for free! Messages will be collected starting on the 21st until the 24th. Messages will be delivered via SMS on December 25.

Guidelines

1. Greetings must be less than or equal to 100 characters.
2. No foul, sexual, threatening, or abusive messages.
3. Messages must be in English/Filipino.
4. Sender and recipient must both have an OSAM account. Sender must login to the domain www.soadosa.org and get the account PIN.
5. Only one message can be submitted by each student every 24 hours.
6. Sender must know identifiable and conclusive information about the recipient such as name, degree, college, or mobile number.
7. Recipient will not know the sender unless the sender discloses it in the name field.
8. All messages are subject to review and all rights are reserved by SOAD not to deliver messages deemed inappropriate.

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Salary Update for Student Assistants

Good news to all student assistants! Starting January 2014, student assistants may get their salaries within one (1) month upon submission of DTR if they have their own Landbank accounts.

OSA is reviving the use of Landbank accounts for the SA payroll with some minor changes:

1. Student assistants must open their own personal Landbank accounts at the UPLB branch. The account must have a maintaining balance of P500.
2. Use of a Landbank account is optional. Student assistants may still opt to receive their salaries through the Cashier's Office.

SAs who will enroll their Landbank accounts for the SA payroll will receive their salaries earlier than students without Landbank accounts. Payroll processing for students with bank accounts is faster because certain government cash advance and disbursement policies are circumvented.

UPDATE AS OF 01/30/2014: Student assistants with Landbank ATM as payment option will get their salaries for DTRs filed January 2014 on February 3, 2014 (Monday).

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Public Service Announcements (PSA)

All UPLB students that have OSAM profiles regularly receive messages that are of public interest from the Office of Student Affairs.

From time to time, OSA also disseminates university announcements that concern the majority of the students such as but not limited to:

1. class suspension announcements
2. registration instructions
3. public service initiatives of the university
4. open forum and consultations

Sample PSA

OSA would like to emphasize that receiving SMS from OSA is a privilege and disseminating information through SMS is not a mandate of the office. OSA is simply helping disseminate information.

The following are the media OSA regularly uses when disseminating information:

1. Facebook post in www.facebook.com/uplbosa
2. Twitter post in www.twitter.com/uplbosa
3. Email through the UPLB-OSA Mailing List
4. Bulletin boards
5. Promotion in www.uplbosa.org
6. Issuance of a memorandum

In special cases and when SMS credits are available, OSA may also disseminate the information through SMS as it deems necessary.

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The bridge may be broken but we can manage.

In our efforts to integrate the systems in our university, the UPLB Office of Student Affairs relies on SystemOne to authenticate UPLB students. When users login to our system, we verify their credentials with the SystemOne server before letting them in to our system. We rely on SystemOne so students need not memorize a different username and password to access OSAM.

From time to time, SystemOne becomes unavailable for a variety of reasons and this cannot be avoided by OSA. We do not manage SystemOne nor the university network. When SystemOne is down, users won't be able to login to our system using their SystemOne accounts.

The broken bridge affects our operations but we can manage. When SystemOne is unavailable, they can use the Alternate Login link at the bottom of the login form.

The alternate login feature enables registered users to login by supplying a code that will be sent to their mobile phones:

OrgsUP users can also login using their Facebook accounts if they linked their Facebook accounts with their OrgsUP accounts. This is not yet available in the OSAM System but the plans to globalize this is already underway.

If all else fails, OSA can issue temporary OSAM accounts. Students should just proceed to OSA and bring their UPLB ID. OSAM accounts may be used by students to access OrgsUP or OSAM if they cannot login using their SystemOne account. When access to the system is urgently needed, we advise students to drop by OSA and request for an OSAM account.

Unfortunately, all new users cannot use alternate login or login via Facebook. These two login procedures are only available to existing registered users of OrgsUP or OSAM with complete profiles. We treat security seriously and we cannot just grant users access to our system based on unverified Facebook profiles or email accounts.

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Online DTR for all student assistants now available

COMMIT upgraded the Daily Time Record (DTR) processing module to accommodate student assistants (SA) with special work schedules such as those who are working in the dormitories, libraries, lecture classes, among others.

With a revamped interface, color-coded online DTR, and adjustable work hours, all student assistants will be able to generate their DTRs online starting 8 a.m. today.

Online generation of DTRs has improved the processing of the S.A. payroll because the cross-checking of class schedules and DTRs are no longer done manually. In the past, manual checking of DTRs (not including payroll processing) took about three weeks.

The revision of the system started a month ago with the automated SA requests. Offices were provided SA item codes with corresponding SA classifications based on their requests. This has significantly improved the office's file management and record tracking.

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List of Scholarships

Financial aid is provided to scholars to encourage them to continue studying. OSA has about 39 scholarships aside from regular financial assistance provided to students like SLB, STFAP, SA, and SUPSA. The 39 scholarships are from private and government institutions.

Each of these scholarships has its own requirements and benefits. The benefits include monthly or semestral stipends, reduced or free matriculation fees, and other forms of allowances.

We know it's hard to get excellent grades and most students have to go the extra mile to get them. While we do encourage you to do your best to get a lot of uno (1.0), we want you to know that our scholarships are not only for students running for the laudes.

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OrgsUP, OSAM, SOADOSA, and UPLBOSA?

For quite some time now, the UPLB Office of Student Affairs has been using three domains that may be confusing to some of you. If you're still wondering what's with all the systems, we are clarifying that today.

Collectively, systems we developed at OSA are all under the OSAM System. Some of the components of the system include the following: organization recognition, student assistantship application, online student loan board, activity permit processing, and one stop clearance.

Domain	What is this?
SOADOSA.ORG	This is OrgsUP. This is the information system of the Student Organizations and Activities Division. This is where it all began as the automation and computerization at the OSA started at SOAD. SystemOne and OSAM accounts can be used to login to the site.
UPLBOSA.ORG	This is OSAM or the OSAM System. It stands for the Office of Student Affairs Management (OSAM) System. This is OSA's initiative to expand the systems of SOAD and also incorporate information technology to the operations of the other divisions. SystemOne and OSAM accounts can be used to login to the site.
OSAM.TK	This is also OSAM. This domain functions as a URL shortener. This helps OSA disseminate website URLs easily. For instance, the link http://osam.tk/diff will redirect visitors to http://it.uplbosa.org/2013/12/what-is-difference-between-orgsup-osam.html

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UPDATE: Organization Recognition (Second Semester)

To cast all shadows of doubt, the organization recognition process happens only during the first semester. All organizations recognized during the first semester are recognized the following semester unless otherwise suspended. All organizations aspiring to be recognized must wait for first semester.

However, organizations must update their organization profiles and membership roster every second semester after the last day of late registration (November 29). To reduce paper usage, recognition update no longer requires organizations to submit printed copies of the updated organization profile. Instead, the information in the OrgsUP database must be updated online.

Point persons may now update their organization profiles by logging in to www.soadosa.org, clicking on My Organizations, and selecting the organization to update. There is a new tab labeled 'Recognition Update' in the organization profile.

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14 is the new hotspot!

Starting December 2, the Communication and Information Technology (COMMIT) unit of the Office of Student Affairs can be found at Room 14, 2/F SU Building.

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