Tag: July 7, 2012

UNIVERSITY officials have begun installing more than 700 additional spy cameras as part of the second phase of a multi-million-peso campus security program.

The Facilities and Management Office (FMO) began putting up 725 closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras at the Albertus Magnus Building, Roque Ruaño Building, AMV-College of Accountancy Building, Benavides Building, Thomas Aquinas Research Center, and Tan Yan Kee Student Center last month.

FMO engineer Oliver Gagarin said the installation would be completed by the end of October.

ESPAÑA, Manila welcomed back the Queen of Spain last July 6 to cap a successful five-day royal visit, renewing historic ties between the University and the Spanish crown.

Students lined up the streets of the campus to greet Queen Sofia on her second visit to the Pontifical and Royal University, while the UST Museum and Archives brought out the University’s priceless heirlooms.

Queen Sofia, who was welcomed by Rector Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, O.P., Vice Rector Fr. Richard Ang, O.P., and Secretary General Fr. Winston Cabading, O.P, laid a wreath at the statue of Msgr. Miguel de Benavides, O.P., the native of Carrión de los Condes in Palencia, Spain who founded UST. A marker was unveiled at the Museum of Arts and Sciences to commemorate the visit.

FOR THE second time this year, a national broadsheet has attacked UST for its academic policies, this time for refusing to grant a degree to a college dropout who runs a private school.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer put on the front page last June 18 a complaint by so-called “sick books crusader” Antonio Calipjo Go against Faculty of Arts and Letters Dean Michael Anthony Vasco last year over the latter’s supposed slow response to Go’s inquiry on UST’s Expanded Tertiary Education Equivalency and Accreditation Program (ETEEAP).

THE FORMER residence hall of international students has been converted into a training hotel in a bid to boost tourism and hospitality programs in the University.

Some portions of the Domus Mariae International Residence were renovated to cater to practicum subjects of the Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM) and Tourism programs of UST.

“It would be considered as a laboratory venue for HRM students for their housekeeping [subject], while it accommodates special guests of the University at the same time,” College of Tourism and Hospitality Management (CTHM) Dean Ma. Cecilia Tio Cuison told the Varsitarian.

HUWAG mong kausapin ang hindi mo kakilala.

Ito ang paalala ng UST Security Office sa mga mag-aaral noong pagbubukas ng klase upang maiwasan ang mga krimen sa loob at labas ng Unibersidad.

GONE are the days of twisting and turning for left-handed Thomasians using right-handed chairs.

The University has started providing specialized armchairs for left-handed students to provide comfort and “promote optimal learning.”

“We [requested] all the colleges through the faculty secretary to find out how many of the students are left-handed,” said Pilar Romero, former assistant to the rector of the defunct Office of Administration.

A 2008 survey showed that the number was “substantial” enough to warrant the purchase of left-handed chairs.

But the plan went in “hiatus” considering the costs and the length of time needed to produce a mold for the new chair, Romero added.

THE EXCHANGE of knowledge on student services among universities in the Asia-Pacific region will prepare Filipino students to become globally competitive professionals, experts said in an international forum hosted by UST.

The 13th Asia-Pacific Student Services Association (APSSA) International Conference last July 7 tackled trends in students services, particularly how college students can become “global citizens” who will contribute to a ”collaborative global market.”

Outgoing APSSA president Chris Hepperlin of Queensland University in Australia said regional cooperation on student services will produce professionals who are ready to work in any part of the globe.

MEDICINE professors will be required to log on to a biometric “thumb-scanning” system to monitor absences and tardiness in class by August or September this year.

The new policy will require physician-lecturers to “bundy-in and bundy-out” by scanning their fingerprints on the machine to record their attendance, said Dean Ma. Graciela Gonzaga of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery.

But one Medicine professor complained that the system was “unfair” because it would purportedly not require administrative officials, such as department chairs and supervisors, to log on to the system.

THE OFFICE of the Rector has appointed three new general education department heads, who vowed to strengthen the University’s research and faculty profile.

Camilla Vizconde, Arlene Calara, and Luciana Urquiola, professors from the College of Education, Faculty of Arts and Letters (Artlets), and AMV-College of Accountancy, were named chairs of the English, Social Sciences, and Literature departments, respectively.

Vizconde, who replaced Artlets professor Marilu Madrunio, plans to strengthen the language center of the department for English and Filipino languages through short courses in Spanish, French, Nihongo, Korean, Mandarin, and 12 other major Philippine languages.

FORMER Varsitarian editor in chief and publications adviser Vicente Rosales, Sr. passed away after suffering from cardiac arrest last June 18. He was 80.

His son Vicente “Bambie” Rosales, Jr., eldest of four children, said his father was pronounced dead at 11:34 p.m. in Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan.

Rosales joined the Varsitarian as a news reporter in 1949 and was news editor from 1950 to 1952. He served as editor in chief from 1952 to 1953, and 1954 to 1955, but decided to step down to senior associate editor in 1953 to 1954, and 1955 to 1956 due to his heavy academic workload as a Medicine student.