Tag: July 31, 2009

DUE TO her hectic schedule, College of Commerce sophomore Emperatriz Camille Sangil finds it difficult to sit down for a while and eat. To satisfy her growling stomach, Sangil has resorted to a diet that consists of fast food such as French fries, burgers, and fried chicken.

“Fast food chains are very convenient for us students because it only takes a few minutes for us to order our food, which we can eat while going to class,” she said. “They also taste as good as they look, so I would not mind having fast food all week.”

Sangil is just one of many Thomasians who, because of limited time, are forced to grab and go.

Eva Olarte, director of UST Nutrition and Dietary department, agreed that students prefer fast food partly due to heavy school work.

THE KING of Pop Michael Jackson suffered from vitiligo, a condition that causes skin discoloration especially among areas of the skin with too much exposure to the sun. Few were aware that his vitiligo, which he claims to have inherited from his father’s family, was an offshoot of lupus erythematosus, a disease characterized by inflammation of tissues and joints due to the immune system attacking the body’s own tissues.

“An autoimmune disease is when the body is being attacked by its own immune system because it thinks that the body’s tissues are foreign,” said Dr. Ma. Angela Cumagun of the UST Hospital’s department of dermatology.

Vitiligo is a chronic skin condition caused by the autoimmune destruction of melanocytes—cells responsible for skin pigmentation. Cumagun said the cause of vitiligo is still unknown.

“Vitiligo can be caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors like sun exposure and stress,” she said.

A FROG-KILLING fungus has reached the Philippines.

Experts believe the Batrachocytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), a fungus that causes the lethal frog disease called chytridiomycosis, arrived in the Philippines through foreign carrier frogs.

College of Science professor Mae Lowe Diesmos and her team composed by Dr. Rafe Brown from the University of Kansas and Dr. Arvin Diesmos, curator of amphibians and reptiles at the National Museum of the Philippines, found signs of Bd fungus in four species of local frogs. Out of 20 frogs from Cavite and the Bicol region tested, five were positive for the fungus.

“There were no visible signs of the fungal disease among local frogs. We just [considered the possibility] that they have it,” Diesmos said.

THOMASIAN pride is not enough to keep professors from leaving the University–fair college policies and work satisfaction play big roles in encouraging them to stay, a recent study has revealed.

The study titled “When the ‘Arms’ Begin to Speak: University Faculty Assessment of their Development ‘Heads’,” commissioned by the UST Faculty Union, delved on interpersonal working relationships between faculty members with administrators.

The study showed that professors in 11 of 18 academic units in the University have harmonious working relationships with their deans, assistant deans, regents, and college secretaries, based on six variables.

This contributed to the professors’ “pleasure of rendering service,” making them “proud of being a UST professor.”

THOMASIAN clergymen will head the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) come December 1.

Tandag bishop Nereo Odchimar has been elected CBCP president for a two-year term, while Palo Archbishop Jose Palma will take his place as vice-president.

Odchimar, a former Faculty of Canon Law professor, will replace Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo. He got 86 votes from 88 national dioceses during the CBCP’s 99th Plenary Assembly at the Pope Pius XII Catholic Center in Paco, Manila last July 11.

Known for his strong stand against mining and illegal logging, Odchimar is the first bishop to be elected CBCP president. Before him, only archbishops have occupied the post. The 68-year-old prelate is also among a number of bishops who have called for the delay of charter change until after the 2010 presidential elections.

DON’T be selfish.

This is what a 20-year-old Nursing student learned after becoming UST’s first confirmed case of the influenza A(H1N1) virus.

After a five-day tour of Hong Kong, the fourth-year student skipped the mandatory 10-day quarantine period and immediately went to school to attend an organizational meeting on the first day of classes. It was on Wednesday, June 17, when she felt flu symptoms.

“I was lying on bed, feeling sick. When I can no longer bear the pain, I asked my father to bring me to the hospital,” she recalled.

Although she was immediately admitted at St. Luke’s Medical Center, and had swab test on June 19, it took two days before results confirmed that she was positive for the virus. By that time, she had infected a number of people, including a fellow member of her student organization.

Her friend, in turn, infected her entire family in the province, and it was a domino effect.

FIRST, it was off-campus enrollment. Now, UST is allowing high school students who want to enter the University to apply for entrance exams online.

Aspiring Thomasians may now register for UST entrance examinations on the Internet with an online application launched last July 1.

Admissions director Mecheline Zonia Manalastas said that so far, more than 3, 000 examinees have used the new system.

“This is to lessen the anxiety of parents,” Manalastas said. “As early as May, there are already parents interested to send their children to UST. This is the answer to their pleas.”

Upon signing in to the “Freshman Application” link on the UST website (www.ust.edu.ph), an application form will appear on the computer screen. The student will have to pass the form together with other requirements (photo, report card, birth certificate) to the Admissions Office and pay the examination fee to get a test permit, Manalastas said.

THE MIGUEL de Benavides Library will hold the international exhibit, “A Treasure of our Nation,” next year in connection with UST’s quadricentennial anniversary in 2011, featuring books dating back to as early as 1539.

The exhibit will showcase books stored at the Antonio V. del Rosario Heritage section of the library, some of which were donated by the founder of UST the Dominican Miguel de Benavides, the third bishop of Manila

Rector Fr. Rolando de la Rosa, O.P. said the exhibit would serve as a portal to the history of the Filipino nation, which is connected to UST’s own history.

“We hope that, with the enhanced sense of history, Filipinos will learn to appreciate their identity as a people, be grateful to their Spanish roots and learn lessons which they can use to determine their future,” De la Rosa said in his opening remarks during a dinner meeting to plan for the exhibit last April 28.

SAVING a seat in restaurants inside the University using bags and other personal belongings may now be risky.

Barely a month after a similar incident on campus, four Thomasian freshmen fell victims to two separate petty thefts inside food chains at the multi-deck carpark, after they left their bags on their seats to order food.

According to a report by the security office, Orlando Balisbis, 21, a resident of 2449 Tramo Street, Pasay City, was caught carrying two cellphones stolen from Commerce freshmen Dessa Estacio and Marielle Lanireen Belardo last July 15 at the McDonald’s outlet.

Two unidentified accomplices escaped with another cellphone that belonged to Monique Cano, also a first-year Commerce student.

The three students left their bags to reserve their seats, only to find their cellphones gone when they got back.

A PHILOSOPHICAL theologian has urged Thomasians to rekindle the basic Christian value that is “seemingly forgotten and taken for granted”––dignity, pointing out that it is violated not just by atrocities such as war and slavery, but by cloning and human engineering.

William Sweet, a Canadian professor, said dignity, being the core of human rights, distinguishes people from mere objects or commodities.

“Dignity involves what persons are not. If you treat your body or other person’s body a property, and (for instance) the government takes your property, what logically follows that?” Sweet said.

Sweet added that some people downplay the importance of dignity and are not even aware of it.