News

IN FULFILLMENT of an agreement between the Center for Educational Research and Development (CERD) and a regional educational technology center on the training of researchers as resource persons, CERD director Allan de Guzman will train with the organization starting next month.

The agreement requires a UST researcher to serve Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Innovation Technology (Seameo Innotech) on an on-call basis. CERD signed the memorandum of understanding with Seameo director Dr. Erlinda Pefianco last Oct. 1.

THE UNIVERSITY will not be affected by the Commission on Higher Education’s (Ched) Memorandum Order no.14 that put a cap on tuition increase, Vice-Rector for Finance Fr. Melchor Saria, O.P. said.

“UST will not be affected by the order since the University raised its tuition by only four per cent,” Fr. Saria said.

Ched memorandum, issued last May 16, placed a cap on tuition increases by schools nationwide. In the order, Ched placed the maximum allowable increase equivalent to the inflation rate as set by the National Economic and Development Authority.

DOCTORS, be humane.

Faculty of Medicine and Surgery Dean Dr. Rolando Lopez emphasized the need for “humane doctors” during the 12th Congress of the International Association of Catholic Medical Schools in South Korea from May 11 to 13.

“(Doctors) should not only know how to treat patients but to humanely care for them,” Lopez told the Varsitarian after returning to the country last May 17. “We want them to treat not the disease, but the entire person.”

BECAUSE of the lure of the Nursing profession, the number of medical students applicants in the country has “significantly” dropped since 2000, statistics from the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) showed.

According to Loupel Gueta, a Ched Management and Information Statistics division staff, economic reasons affected the drop.

UST Faculty of Medicine and Surgery (Medicine) Dean Dr. Rolando Lopez agrees.

IT HAS been three months since a series of vehicular accidents on Arsenio H. Lacson avenue compelled the University to request a pedestrian footbridge in the area, but but the proposal couldn’t be implemented for lack of funds, a Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) official told the Varsitarian.

“The footbridge cannot be erected at once due to the unavailability of (resources), MMDA Traffic Planning and Design acting chief Lilian Guerra said. “And there were also pending requests since last November and December, which we are prioritizing.”

A BLESSING in disguise?

The UST College of Nursing (Nursing) had lost 16 faculty members in the past four years, but due to the retrogression of visas filed after December 2002 in the United States (US), the College has been relieved of faculty loss problems, at least for this school year.

Nursing Dean Glenda Vargas told the Varsitarian she is glad to have her faculty intact.

A SIGN of underemployment or a mark of Thomasian versatility?

An incoming Political Science senior was chosen as the new “tadjock” (field news reporter) of the news-gag show, Wazzup Wazzup: Extra Strong last April 22.

Len Hasal, 19, said she is very happy about winning the slot, despite people finding her academic course not connected to being a tadjock.

“Some are shocked to hear I am majoring in Political Science,” she said. “However, I believe one should not be limited to one’s field.”

WHILE the University prefers teachers with postgraduate degrees, some administrators and professors do not believe that having a master’s degree or a doctorate is equivalent to efficient teaching.

In an interview with the Varsitarian, Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs Dr. Armando De Jesus said teaching efficiency does not rely on postgraduate degrees alone, but also on the teaching methods of educators and efforts of the University to improve on them.

AFTER almost five decades of teaching, former Faculty of Pharmacy Dean Dr. Rosalinda Solevilla, retires from the University, and wants to concentrate on a food-making venture.

“Matanda na ako para magturo.” “Gusto ko namang mag-concentrate sa food business,” Solevilla told the Varsitarian.

Solevilla’s deanship ended last March.

A multiple degree holder, she said she wants to put up a branch of Pares-Pares, of which her daughter is a franchise holder, near the University “soon”.

TO REPLENISH and increase its healthy blood supply, the University of Santo Tomas Hospital (USTH) blood bank collaborated with the Office of Student Affairs and various student organizations to promote voluntary blood donation.

USTH blood bank director Dr. Manuel Barnes said he asked faculty members, administrators, and student organizations to improve information dissemination about Dugong Tomasino, the University-wide voluntary blood drive campaign launched in 2004.