Tag: June 18, 2011

THERE’S no stopping UST from imposing a hefty P1,000 fine for late enrollees, an amount a Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) official described as “too high.”

CHEd executive director Julito Vitriolo admitted that the commission could not keep universities such as UST from imposing such a penalty, in the absence of a formal memorandum regulating the collection of additional fees.

“We advise them (schools) to waive the penalty in meritorious cases because it adds to the burden of the students,” Vitriolo told the Varsitarian.

Told that UST charges P1,000 for late enrollment, he said in Filipino: “It seems too high. P500 would probably be enough.”

MANILA Mayor Alfredo Lim received the second Quadricentennial Service Award during the opening of the new academic year at the Santisimo Rosario Parish last June 6.

Fr. Rolando de la Rosa O.P., Rector of the University, said the award was given to Lim because he exemplified “the meaning of self-giving,” had become a “model of a truly conscientious public servant,” and had transformed the city of Manila “from a ‘sin city’ to an evolving cultural landmark.”

De la Rosa cited Lim for providing ample lighting among main roads “disciplining” sidewalk vendors around the campus, improving police visibility, and closing beerhouses within the perimeters of UST.

THE COUNTRY’S next Ombudsman may be from UST.

After the Philippines’ first female Ombudsman, Merceditas Gutierrez, resigned last May 6, two Faculty of Civil Law professors were nominated to take over the position.

Along with 25 other nominees, Judge Philip Aguinaldo and lawyer Marlon Manuel are set for a public interview before the Judicial and Bar Council.

“I would say [my nomination is] more of a recognition of a job that is considered ‘passable’ to the standards of Judicial and Bar Council,” Aguinaldo told the Varsitarian.

By MARIA ELOISA PARCO-DE CASTRO* 

A HUNDRED and fifty years after Dr. Jose Rizal’s birth, the nation celebrates the occasion with conferences, lectures, art exhibits, a heritage trail, book launches, documentaries, short TV features and myriad other ways. This birthday wish list is a simple contribution to celebrate the same occasion, but with the added hope that any of these wishes would bring us closer to the nation that the First Filipino had imagined and helped to forge with his martyrdom.

1. That Filipinos, particularly students, would read Rizal’s novels ( the Noli and the Fili) in justifiably beautiful translations that would enable them to laugh, rant and rave exactly at the parts that he intended them to, thus being able to relish every bit of both novels.

YOUR insights on the reproductive health (RH) bill will now have a permanent site in cyberspace.

Dubbed “CBCP for Life,” this online portal was launched last May 25 to provide a “blow-by-blow” coverage of the RH bill’s proceedings in Congress, along with regular “legislative updates” through the social networking site Twitter.

Msgr. Pedro Quitorio, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines media office director,said position papers promoting family and life, written by various institutions and individuals, even outside of the Catholic faith, would also be posted in the online portal (www.cbcponline.net).

THOMASIANS should work together for the development of the University, UST officials said during the opening mass at the Santisimo Rosario Parsih last June 6.

Aside from the mass celebrated by Fr. Quirico Pedregosa, O.P., prior provincial of the Dominican Province of the Philippines, University archivist Regalado Trota-Jose retold UST’s history during the 145-year-old tradition “Discurso de Apertura” (opening lecture).

Pedregosa lauded in his homily the University’s “diverse academic officials” and reminded them to use their gifts and yield to the workings of the Holy Spirit.

After the Mass, Trota-Jose discussed major events in UST’s history as gleaned from the local archives.

THE RIZAL Conference Hall, the auditorium at the Faculty of Arts and Letters, has been converted into four classrooms to “accommodate more students,” much to the dismay of the faculty’s theater guild.

“The auditorium was not maximized because it was used only for small academic talks and theater productions,” Dean Michael Anthony Vasco said.

The renovation, which started last month, maximized space by putting up dividers separating the conference hall into smaller rooms.

“If we have small lecture hearings, you simply close the divisions and you already have four lecture rooms, and if after that session you will have a plenary, then you will have again a big lecture hall,” Vasco said.

FOR THE second time, Russian Federation Supreme Court Chief Justice visited the Asia’s oldest university last June 15.

Chief Justice Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Lebedev, together with Russian Ambassador to the Philippines Nikolay Rishatovich Kudashev, had his exchange of pleasantries with Fr. Rolando de la Rosa, O.P., Rector of the University, along with other UST officials in the Rector’s Board Hall at the Main Building.

De la Rosa toured Lebedev at the UST Museum of Arts and Sciences, Quadricentennial Square, and Miguel de Benavides Library.

A LEGAL Management student will head the Varsitarian’s 83rd batch, but journalism majors continue to dominate the editorial staff.

Former Special Reports editor and Legal Management senior Alexis Ailex Villamor, Jr. was chosen as this year’s editor in chief.

Joining Villamor in the editorial board are managing editor John Ernest Jose, a fifth-year Architecture student and former Circle writer, and associate editor Rommel Marvin Rio, a senior Journalism major and former News reporter.

THE UNIVERSITY has finally “penetrated” the international circle of leading countries in advanced learning systems by hosting an international conference on educational technology at the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex from May 30 to 31.

The “EDU Quad International 2011,” organized by the Educational Technology Center (Ed-Tech), gathered administrators, educators, and students from the academe and technological industry to discuss issues on online learning and electronic development.

Ed-Tech director Ninia Calaca said international conferences on electronic learning or “e-learning” were usually “locked” in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and UST had to wait for three years before EDU Quad was brought to the country.