Tag: March 26, 2010

COUSINS Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro and Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III are “statistically tied” as Thomasians’ top choices to become the country’s next president, according to the third and last University-wide pre-election survey conducted by the Research Cluster for Cultural, Educational, and Social Issues.

The top choices for vice president and senators remained unchanged in the final Political Opinions of the Youth Survey conducted simultaneously with the student council elections from February 16 to 19.

GRADUATES of UST occupational therapy are a step closer to getting work abroad, after the program gained full accreditation from the Occupational Therapy Association of the Philippines (Otap) last March 14.

Pauline Grace Morato, a professor from the College of Rehabilitation Sciences (CRS), said the accreditation was granted during Otap’s National Convention at the Ortigas Center in, Pasig.

“Yes, kakabigay lang sa amin [it was given to us just recently], Morato said, referring to Otap’s accreditation of UST’s occupational therapy program.

UST HAS the rightful claim to the title of Asia’s oldest university, even if it was not the first university to be established in the Philippines, the head of UST’s history department has said.

This also holds true despite a rival claim by Cebu’s University of San Carlos which supposedly originated from the Colegio Seminario de San Ildefonso established in 1595.

Historian Augusto de Viana said Philippine Star columnist Isagani Cruz erred in claiming that the defunct Universidad de San Ignacio, established in Intramuros in 1590, is the oldest university in Asia “based on an institution’s origin to the time it was founded, not to the time it was named a university.”

De Viana pointed to UST’s continuous existence since 1611.

EMBATTLED UST Faculty Union President Gil Gamilla clinched his third victory in the union elections last February 26, extending his 14-year leadership for another five years.

This, even if non-tenured faculty members were allowed to vote in the elections, and despite the P9.5 million fund mess his administration is facing.

Achievers Party standard-bearer Gamilla beat philosophy professor Jove Jim Aguas of Truth, Accountability, Participation, Advancement, Transparency (TAPAT) party by a slight difference of 23 votes. Gamilla got 503 votes, while Aguas had only 480. Forty faculty members abstained.

EMPHASIZING television’s influence on the young, the 6th UST Students’ Choice Awards for Television (USTv) called on networks to provide viewers with shows that will help them make “good choices.”

Vice Rector Fr. Pablo Tiong, O.P., in his opening speech, said television networks should deliver what is “sensible and beneficial.”

“We, as consumers and as an audience, should exercise deep responsibility in what we watch, what we listen to, and what we use,” Tiong said. “In the same way, media providers should also responsibly deliver what is sensible and what is beneficial, rather than just what is hip and earning.”

THIRTY-SEVEN to go.

The UST Publishing House has launched 38 new titles as part of its “400 books at 400!” quadricentennial project.

With the new titles, the Publishing House has already produced a total of 363 books ahead of the Quadricentennial.

The “400 books at 400!” project launched in 2001 aimed at publishing 40 books every year for 10 years. Former Publishing House director Jocelyn Calubayan had said that improper implementation of the project became costly for the Publishing House.

Last September, the Publishing House decided to outsource printing operations after incurring P30 million in losses.

UST WAS named the second top performing school in the Physician licensure exams after gaining a 94 percent passing rate last January, unchanged from the same period last year.

Thomasian Charlene Khe Haw emerged sixth among a total of 621 successful examinees, posting an 84.71 percent score in the board exams. Thirty-two of the 34 Thomasian examinees passed.

Marie Jo Cabanting of the Far Eastern University - Dr. Nicanor Reyes Medical Foundation topped this year’s board with a score of 85.42 percent.

UST ranked second to St. Luke’s College of Medicine, Perpetual Help College of Manila, Cebu Doctors University, and Cagayan Colleges Tuguegarao, which all tied at first place with 100 percent passing rates each.

THE FACULTY of Civil Law will hold its first mock bar examination this June to prepare some 90 aspiring Thomasian lawyers for the September exams.

Civil Law Dean Nilo Divina said the mock test would save graduating law students money from expensive fees charged by review centers.

“The key of the mock bar exams is for our students to have the feeling of how it is to take the bar examination so that they will be prepared ahead of time,” Divina said.

Subjects to be covered by the mock test are Political and Public International Law, Labor and Social Legislation, Civil Law, Taxation, Mercantile Law, Criminal Law, Remedial Law, and Legal Ethics and Practical Exercises. It will be held for four days from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

THERE WILL be no more summer classes for Accountancy students as the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) Memorandum Order No. 3 series of 2007, which increases the number of years of a regular accounting course from four to five, will finally take effect at the AMV–College of Accountancy next school year.

The five-year program will finally be implemented for freshmen next school year following the approval of Clarita Carillo, assistant to the Rector for academic affairs.

With the proposed new curriculum of Accountancy which will be effective this academic year 2010-2011, summer classes will already be replaced by a fifth year

The summer classes were held to compensate for the additional year earlier required by the commission.