Tag: No. 12

THE UNIVERSITY administration and the 1,600-strong UST Faculty Union (USTFU) finally signed a new, five-year collective bargaining agreement (CBA) last March 10, with both sides agreeing to a “compromise” to avert a strike.

The deal came less than a month after USTFU declared a deadlock in negotiations over teaching loads, faculty qualifications and promotion, which became the basis for the filing of a notice of strike before the National Conciliation and Mediation Board last Feb. 27.

THE PHILIPPINES topped the list of Catholic nations in a global survey that tracked support for the Church’s stand on moral issues.

The “Voice of the People” survey conducted by Bendixen & Amandi International, a communication consulting firm, was a worldwide initiative of Univision, a US-based Spanish language TV network, to gather information on the extent of influence of the Church’s doctrines on Catholics.

The 12,000 Catholic respondents came from 12 countries that account for the 61 percent of the world’s Catholic population, namely: the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Italy, Poland, France, Spain, and Philippines, the only Asian nation included in the survey.

AFTER a decade-long delay, the Students’ Code will soon be on the Rector's table.

Outgoing Central Student Council (CSC) President Gab Kintanar said in an interview that the code will be submitted to Rector Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, O.P. after being signed by the CSC Central Board consisting of the CSC president and the local student council presidents, and Prof. Evelyn Songco, assistant to the rector for student affairs. The code is with Songco at present.

When the Rector approves the code, he will then endorse it to the Council of Regents and the Academic Senate, said Artlets student council president Henry Villamiel. If it passes muster, the code will be submitted to the student body for a plebiscite.

The Faculty of Civil law posted a 63-percent passing rate, with 47 out of 75 examinees making the cut, results released by the Supreme Court showed. This was higher than 2012’s 48.57 percent, wherein only 34 out of 70 Thomasian examinees hurdled the Bar.

Leading this year’s new batch of lawyers is Nielson Pangan (85.80 percent) of the University of the Philippines (UP), followed by another UP alumnus, Mark Xavier Oyales, and Dianna Louise Wilwayco of Ateneo de Manila, who shared the second spot with identical scores of 85.45 percent.

NO NEW academic calendar for the country’s basic education system.

The Department of Education (DepEd) wants to retain the June-March school year in elementary and high school, even as a number of universities have decided to move the opening of their academic years to July or August.

UST, the University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila, and De La Salle University have opted to synchronize their academic calendars with the rest of the Southeast Asian region.

The University’s two high schools, UST High School (USTHS) and the Education High School, will still follow the traditional school calendar.

A MALFUNCTIONING air-conditioning unit caused fire at, of all places, the safety training laboratory of the UST Hospital Clinical Division last March 4.

The evaporator motor of the air conditioner at the Nursing Skills Laboratory had overheated, said Sampaloc Fire Department Chief Inspector Crisfo Diaz in a chance interview.

Diaz placed the initial estimate of damage to property at around P50,000. Investigators later said damage caused by the fire could amount to at least P100,000, including laboratory equipment.

Fire hit the laboratory at the sixth floor of the building at 11:12 a.m. and was put out at 11:43 a.m. Diaz said the fire was contained within a single room and was put under control at 11:40 a.m.

THE SECURITY Office has imposed stricter security measures by deploying more guards and setting up checkpoints at every entrance of the campus, following a bomb threat last Feb. 25.

Tightened security was ordered by the Crisis Management Office as a “general prevention” measure against crime, said Security Chief Joseph Badinas.

“Masyado na tayong naging maluwag. Tama lang ‘yung performance na ‘to para ma-prevent ‘yung mga pumapasok na wala namang official business,” Badinas told the Varsitarian in an interview.

CATHOLIC Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines President Archbishop Socrates Villegas has reminded Catholic schools that the pursuit of academic freedom should not be at the expense of denying Christian truths.

In a speech at De La Salle University last Feb. 13, Villegas invited Catholic universities to a “renewed personal encounter” with Christ to faithfully carry out their mission in a society obsessed with consumerism.

“[They] must mediate understanding for the faith in Philippine settings where faith is increasingly ignored or now even unwelcome,” said Villegas in his speech titled “The Role of the Catholic University in the Philippines Today” during the convention of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines.

ALL NEGATIVE.

This was the result of drug tests conducted by the UST Health Service among students this academic year.

Dr. Ma. Salve Olalia, UST Health Service director, said separate mandatory and random tests required by law were successful in serving as a preventive measure against illegal drug use.

“It is one of the strategies that the government has implemented and promulgated. And in our opinion, it is effective as a deterrent for the use of illegal drugs,” she said.

Olalia, however, declined to go into detail, citing confidentiality rules.

ASH WEDNESDAY became a day of reconciliation between the University and the faculty union after Rector Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, O.P. announced that the University would soon grant financial benefits and reduce teaching loads without cutting pay starting next academic year, under a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

In his message during the 15th “Dangal ng UST” faculty awards last March 5, Dagohoy thanked the UST Faculty Union (USTFU) for returning to the negotiating table for a new five-year contract for salaries and other terms and conditions of work, which averted a strike (see banner story).