Tag: June 23, 2006

BRACE for a long vacation next year as classes may start not in rainy June, but in late September.

Senate Bill 565 (SB 565) by Sen. Manuel Villar proposes to move the start of classes from June to September to avert the trouble of holding classes in floods and rain during the rainy season. The bill is already filed in the Senate Committee on Education, Arts and Culture and is supported by its chair, Sen. Juan Flavier, and by Senate President Franklin Drilon.

THE VATICAN has appointed a Thomasian as auxiliary bishop of Manila.

Fr. Broderick Socauco Pabillo of the Apostolic Vicariate of Puerto Princesa will join Bishop Bernardino Cortez as assistant to Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales. The apostolic nuncio to the Philippines, Archbishop Fernando Filoni, announced the appointment in a press release last May 24.

UST NOW has an official logo for the 2011 celebration.

The logo designed by College of Architecture and Fine Arts (CAFA) alumnus Dopy Doplon, chief executive officer of ArtOne Design and Communications, Inc., was launched as the University’s official logo for its quadricentennial celebration in 2011 last April 29 during the Grand Alumni Homecoming at the Manila Hotel, Roxas Blvd.

The logo contains the UST Main Building tower while four tounges of fire above it illustrate the word “UST”.

NEWLY-installed Papal Nuncio to the Philippines Archbishop Fernando Filoni urged Thomasians to be “guardians of truth and bold witnesses of Jesus Christ” in his first visit to the University during the Mass of the Holy Spirit last June 13 at the Santisimo Rosario Parish. The annual Mass of the Holy Spirit officially opened the new schoolyear.

Filoni said students should fully develop their talents and pursue the truisms of their disciplines.

THE NEXT Rector must continue the development of Centers of Excellence (COE) and Centers of Development (COD) among UST’s academic programs, stem the deteriorating performance of some programs in state licensure exams, and realize the expansion of UST around the country and even abroad.

These are the key needs that the next rector must immediately address, according to interviews conducted by the Varsitarian among campus educators, administrators and planners.

COMIC book author Dean Francis Alfar makes an impressive crossover to Philippine fiction with his first novel, Salamanca, (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2006), which won last year’s Palanca Grand Prize for the Novel.

Employing magic realism, a literary technique that weaves fantastical elements in a realistic setting, Alfar relays the love story of Gaudencio Rivera and Jacinta Cordova without cheesy idylls, using reverie rather than sentimentalism.

THOMASIANS taking up literature subjects will have to read less Anglo-American text for more “global” readings starting this school year.

To update the general education curriculum, UST will replace Introduction to Literary Types and Forms with World Literatures, which will now be Literature 101.

Armando De Jesus, vice-rector for academic affairs, said the old Introduction to Literary Types and Forms was focused on British and American literatures or European text translated into English.

“In order for great people to do great things, they must not be bridled by timidity.” — Astronaut Eileen Collins

ALL ALONG, I thought timidity was all right.

As a young boy, my parents would not allow me to go out of the house and play with other kids as I was the only child then. In my elementary class, my teachers often noted my coyness, as most of my classmates were noisy and naughty.

GAYA ng ating watawat, binubuo ng makulay na himaymay ang ating kasaysayan: may masigla gaya ng dilaw na sinag ng araw at may mapula dahil sa pakikibaka at trahedya.

Ito ang naging tema ng Hinabing Gunita, isang pagtatanghal ng ika-108 na anibersaryo ng kalayaan ng Pilipinas, na ginanap sa Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo sa Cultural Center of the Philippines noong Hunyo 11.

NAPATUNAYAN na ng makatang si Bienvenido Lumbera, isang Tomasino, na higit pa sa pansariling kasiyahan ang maaaring idulot ng panitikan. Isa rin itong mahalagang instrumento upang higit na mabuksan ang isipan natin tungo sa paglingap sa sariling wika.

Para kay Lumbera, na kahihirang lamang bilang Pambansang Alagad ng Sining sa Panitikan, mahalagang isulong ang pagpapahalaga sa sariling panitikan na kaakibat ang estado ng pulitika at kultura sa bansa.

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