Monday, June 16, 2008 [ sunstar.com.ph ]
THE University of San Carlos (USC) confirmed Saturday an announcement by Network of Independent Travel Agencies president Robert Lim Joseph that it will open a hotel-school.
The proposed USC School of Hospitality Management, which will be called Verdant, will sit on a lot—with an area of about 1,000 square meters—on Don F. Sotto Drive, Cebu City, across the USC North Campus.
The hotel-school, projected to cost about P200 million, will cater to the needs of the USC Department of Hospitality Management, become “a venue for practical applications of the students” and simultaneously generate income for the university.
Verdant is designed by architect Ellis Puerto, director of the Institute of Planning and Design of USC’s College of Architecture and Fine Arts.
Immediate future
Puerto told parents and students of USC hospitality management school that the university wants to implement the project “in the immediate future.”
“(The name) Verdant is coined from verbum (the Word) since USC is a Catholic institution with a creed to witness to the Word. The hospitality project is an extension of living and spreading the word. It also honors the order of the (Society of the Divine Word or SVD) fathers managing USC,” he explained.
He said that as an architectural concept, Verdant will suggest the “flourishing of greenery” and the design of the building will “incorporate environmental and sustainable approaches.”
Puerto said that Verdant has long been conceptualized and would have been built at about the same time as USC’s Law and Business School located on Pelaez Street, Cebu City, which was inaugurated last January.
Due to budget constraints and lack of location then, the hotel-school is in the planning stage.
Construction
It will be presented soon to the university’s cabinet and board of directors. If approved, hospitality management students will be able to enjoy the facility 12 months after the start of construction that Puerto hopes to begin within this school year.
“We now identified a location for the hotel-school and we hope to start construction soon, in order to catch up with the inflation,” he said.
The National Statistics Office recently reported that the inflation rate—rise in prices of goods—in May this year rose to 9.6 percent, the highest in nine years. This prompted the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to raise its key interest rates.
Puerto said that discussions are still being made among members of the administration, including Fr. Mark Matthias, SVD, dean of the USC College of Commerce, on the operational set-up of the hotel-school.
Initially, there are two options being considered. One is that USC will fully operate the hotel-school. Two, it will look for a partner hotel to do so, which will prioritize USC student interns.
Verdant will have 12 floors, including the roof deck that will serve as a restaurant and bar.
Facilities for the hotel-school will include a gym, spa, business center, travel and tours office, fine dining restaurant, laundry and linen room, guest rooms, and a parking area, among others.
It will have a total of five function or meeting rooms that may be converted to larger rooms, three lecture rooms, two laboratories or classrooms, and 70 guest rooms. (NRC)
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