Tag: June 10, 2012

THE UNIVERSITY registered lackluster performances in the recent licensure exams for certified public accountants (CPA) and civil engineers.

Results from the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) showed that UST got a 69.09-percent passing rate in the May CPA exams, lower than last year’s 71.26 percent. A total of 76 out of 110 examinees passed. Fifty-nine of them were first-time takers.

Second-placer Katherine Rose Catindig led the new Thomasian CPAs, with a score of 94.43 percent. Catindig was only a few notches behind topnotcher Manuel Buensuceso Jr. of San Beda College, who scored 94.86 percent.

UST POSTED its lowest standing in the Quacquarelli-Symonds (QS) Asian University Rankings this year, plunging along with three other Philippine schools in the annual survey.

With a score of 36.56, the University dropped by 44 notches and landed at 148th, behind Ateneo de Manila University at 86th place with 48.86 points and De La Salle University, which scored 38.05 points at 142nd. State-run University of the Philippines (UP) led Philippine schools at 68th place with 54.96 points.

UP placed 62nd in last year’s list, while Ateneo and La Salle ranked 65th and 107th, respectively. UST ranked 104th last year.

Davao’s University of Southeastern Philippines, meanwhile, landed in the 251-300 bracket.

EXPERTS see a struggle with academics who are unable to update their teaching skills with new technology, as schools further transition to the so-called digital age.

Maria Lourdes Baybay, director of the Asian University Digital Resource Network at Miriam College, said “digital migrants” or those who did not grow up in the digital age would have to adapt sooner or later. “We’re trying to convince the teachers to use digital tools,” Baybay said during the “Teaching and Learning Local Knowledge in the Digital Age” conference at the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex last May 11.

THE DEAN of the College of Architecture has been re-elected as head of the council of architecture Deans.

Dean John Joseph Fernandez retained the presidency of the Council of Deans and Heads of Architecture Schools in the Philippines (Codhasp) following an election at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay, which coincided with the annual United Architects of the Philippines (UAP) National Convention last April 18.

For two more years, Fernandez will lead Codhasp’s 65 member-schools in implementing academic policies and guidelines issued by the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd).

A LEGAL Management alumna was named one of the Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines (TOSP) in the National Capital Region (NCR) during ceremonies, at the PLDT Innolab in Mandaluyong last April 30.

Rochelle Anne Obleno, a cum laude graduate of the Faculty of Arts and Letters and recipient of the UST Benavides Award for Outstanding Achievement, received the TOSP recognition for her “academic excellence, leadership, and social responsibility.”

Of the 21 finalists, Obleno was the sole candidate from UST.

The TOSP program recognizes college students who have “excelled academically and made a change in their own communities, organizations, and fields of interest, while fulfilling the mission of nation-building in the digital age.”

TWO THOMASIANS bagged the top prize in an intercollegiate house design contest in Mandaluyong last May 18.

The tandem of Architecture graduates Patrick Castañeda and John Michael Puache bested other teams and emerged as champion of this year’s Pag-ibig House Design Competition.

Castañeda and Puache’s entry titled “Systemized Adaptive Floating Edifice” featured a house made of buoyant materials, which can float up to 2.2 meters.

The contest, open to all third to fifth year architecture students in Metro Manila, Cavite, and Bulacan, required a full architectural design for a single-family, one-storey house with a maximum construction cost of P200,000.

THE CONVICTION of Chief Justice Renato Corona by the Senate impeachment tribunal for culpable violation of the Constitution and/or betrayal of public trust should underscore the need for public officials to conduct themselves according to the highest standards of public behavior. While Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said he was convinced there was no ill will on the part of Corona to hide his real properties, the respondent “testified and admitted . . . that he had around P80 Million in three peso accounts and US$2.4 Million in four US dollar accounts,” which he did not declare because the former “represented ‘co-mingled funds,’” while the latter were covered by the “absolute confidentiality” of foreign accounts in the foreign currency deposits law.

Chief Justice Renato Corona has been impeached and found guilty, but it remains a question whether justice has been really served.

He was convicted by virtue of his peso and dollar deposits that he hadn’t declared, deposits which Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales had alleged, based on an unauthenticated report by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) that she presented before the impeachment court.

But there are laws that protect the confidentiality of bank deposits, and their very essence becomes worthless words if abused especially by government officials themselves.

TRADITIONAL timepieces are quite deceptive. They lead us to the impression that time runs in a circular path; that it goes through a cyclic pattern, like phases of the moon, or seasons?recurrent and mundane. And so we instinctively set our lives in harmony with our system of time.

ONWARDS. The word that has been driving me to pursue greater heights since my batch mates and I graduated from college. Onwards, the word that resonates in my head each time I reach a certain limit, barrier, or what appears to be a finish line.

Everything was abrupt—it was as if I had dozed off into a deep slumber and had entered into a bizarre dream. Everything I prayed for regarding my education when I was still an undergraduate was granted, yet now I stand here wondering where I will land and how I shall bring glory to my Alma Mater in the coming years.

During my stay in college and in the Varsitarian, I strived for nothing but the premium in everything that I have done. Now it’s time to play a new game and conquer a new realm called “work.”