John Constantine G. Cordon

UNIVERSITY officials have one fervent wish for the “comeback Rector”: good health so that he would be able to fulfill the demanding job of head of Asia’s oldest university.

Fr. Rolando V. de la Rosa, O.P. will have his hands full as he assumes the Rectorship anew, with college deans and other administrators proposing an ambitious agenda to keep UST’s place as one of the region’s top institutions of higher learning.

“As I look at Father de la Rosa’s job, it seems to be a gigantic task since there are many expectations from different colleges, so I really wish him good health so he can be able to do his job,” newly installed Alfredo M. Velayo-College of Accountancy Dean Minerva Cruz said.

In a statement to the Varsitarian, College of Education Dean Clotilde Arcangel also wished De la Rosa “continuous good health, peace of mind, and prosperity.”

FOR THE first time, painting majors of the College of Fine Arts and Design experienced how it was to showcase and sell their works in an open-house exhibition at the gallery of the Beato Angelico Building last Nov. 19 to 23.

“(The professors wanted) the students to feel how is it like to sell an artwork,” said Mailah Baldemore-Balde, painting professor and one of the organizers of exhibition, titled Mga Pyesa: 1 2 3 4. “We want them to be appreciated when someone buys their painting. This is like a steppingstone where we make them feel the life of an artist in the world outside.”

The works, which covered different artistic styles such as modernism, impressionism, expressionism, cubism, surrealism and realism, were plates required of the students.

However, Balde said she did not want the students to consider their works as mere plates.

ATTENDANCE and punctuality are now “technological” musts at the College of Architecture.

To better monitor the daily time record of professors, the college has bought a state-of-the-art device called the biometric bundy system.

Professors now have to have their fingers scanned by the machine, which has a fingerprint database, to record their attendance.

“Before this system was (introduced), the attendance of the faculty members was checked by a staff that would go around the building and check each classroom,” Architecture Dean John Joseph Fernandez said. “And because (Beato Angelico) is an eight-storey building, by the time (the staffer reaches a classroom), half of the period has already passed. So you wouldn’t know who came in late and if the classes are already dismissed.”