Tag: June 18, 2010

HERE’S good news to start the new academic year on a positive note - our beloved University clinched the 101st spot in the 2010 listing of Asia’s Top 200 Universities by the London-based Times Higher Education as gathered by the consultancy firm Quacquarelli Symonds (THE-QS).

Coming from a dismal 144th placing last year, UST’s new ranking is a testament to how much it has improved in such a short period of time. Currently, UST is now perched comfortably in the third spot among the four Philippine universities that often place in the list, overtaking De La Salle University-Manila (at 106), but still lagging behind Ateneo de Manila and the University of the Philippines (UP), at 58 and 78, respectively.

WHENEVER my friends ask me “Emil, what is it like to be a student-journalist?” I always answer with an array of safe, ready-made lies so far off from the actual truth that it totally misses the mark. (Of course, this never happens as my friends really don’t give a hoot about this subject, but I wouldn’t want accuracy to ruin that lead.)

THIS may be the most boastful opinion piece you’ll ever read.

Without further ado, let me, the news editor of publication year 2009 – 2010, present to you the barriers hurdled by the Varsitarian, particularly by struggling news writers.

This year, the News section of the Varsitarian covered a wide array of any news-worthy stories under the sun – from campus car accidents to faculty issues and controversial elections.

The obstacles included uncooperative sources, scarce data, stringent academic duties and faltering grades.

“ON THE tip of my tongue, an offensive is poised and rearing. My intention a bullet my body a trigger finger—yeah my pen is a pistola!” –Incubus–Pistola

For this last column, I’d like to share a few words. All my columns this year were critical to an extent, but highly impersonal. Before I part mysef from this public trust that is the Varsitarian, please let me give a bit of advice to those who read this column.

The quote above has been an inspiration for my writing for the past few years. It was in my third year that I started to seriously write essays on various topics. I suggest that all who wish to write for public service listen to the whole song.

***

Hemostasis – the arrest of bleeding

IF THERE is one thing I have learned from being a Varsitarian staffer, it is to never doubt God’s will. Disappointment may at first knock on my door, but I have learned that it should never deter me from what I want to achieve in life.

Four years ago, I was a college freshman, eager to prove herself to her new environment. My mother, being a UST Journalism graduate, encouraged my interest in campus journalism by suggesting that I try out for the Varsitarian. Because the publication does not accept freshmen, I decided to try out for our faculty’s publication, instead. Unfortunately, I didn’t pass the qualifying exams.

“It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” - George Eliot

I was talking over the phone with my mom and dad the other night, just before they left for a trip to the US. What struck me was when my mother said, “It’s okay if you don’t pass the boards, we won’t die if you didn’t.  Nakakahiya nga lang.”

I don’t know if they were trying to do a reverse-psychology, or if they had evolved from being authoritarian parents to benevolent ones. All I know is that I am worried about passing, not because I failed to prepare enough but because in truth, nursing has never been my passion.

SA WAKAS, hindi na mananatiling pangarap ang pagkakaroon ng Kagawaran ng Filipino sa UST.

Nagbunga na rin ang ilang dekadang paglalathala ng Varsitarian ng mga hinaing ng mga guro sa Filipino sa pangangailangan ng isang tahanang masisilungan at magkakanlong sa wikang Filipino. Isang regalong maituturing ang pagkakabuo sa kagawaran noong Mayo 17 lalo na’t nataon ang pagbabalik nito sa quadricentenary ng Unibersidad.

“Ito na iyong repormang inaasam-asam namin matapos ang apat na taong pangungulit sa administrasyon,” ani Marilu Madrunio, pinuno ng Department of Languages ng UST na siyang nagsilbing tahanan ng wikang Filipino sa loob ng apat na taon.

A NEW law enacted last March 23 is aiming to protect Filipino scientific researches through government assistance in receiving intellectual property rights (IPR).

Republic Act 10055 or the Philippine Technology Transfer Act of 2009 mandates the grant of intellectual rights to research and development institutions that conduct government-funded researches for the “national benefit.”

The law encourages research institutions to have their research output patented to protect them from being imitated, and for commercialization purposes.

Bernie Justimbaste, director of Planning and Evaluation Service under the Department of Science and Technology, said the law recognizes the significant contributions of research to economic development.

THERE’S much ado about holograms.

The country’s first automated elections saw the biggest broadcast networks trying to outdo each other in using television graphics, nearly overshadowing the more pressing election issues.

Instead of the tried and tested “splitscreen” often used to broadcast reports by TV reporters outside the studio, rivals ABS-CBN and GMA Networks harked back to the Star Wars era and showed images of reporters standing inside the studio carrying on conversations with news presenters, as if seeing each other despite the fact that latter were in remote locations.