Tag: March 29, 2016

THE UST administration has vowed to retain the ranks and salaries of faculty members to be reassigned to the Senior High School (SHS) next academic year as part of measures to deal with the impact of the K to 12 basic education reform.

“Tertiary faculty members who will be borrowed by the SHS shall maintain their rank and rate,” according to a memorandum released by the Office of the Vice Rector for Academic Affairs (OVRAA) last Dec. 11.

UST Faculty Union (USTFU) President George Lim also said salaries of tenured faculty would not be cut despite the reduction in loads. Lim said the maximum load of tenured faculty members would be reduced to 21 units from 24 units by 2017. The extra units will be distributed to other faculty members.

LONG-DELAYED negotiations to increase salaries and other benefits of faculty members under a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the University administration will soon begin, the faculty union president bared.

Dr. George Lim, UST Faculty Union (USTFU) president, said he was awaiting UST’s financial statements from the Office of the Vice Rector for Finance which will be used as basis by the USTFU negotiating panel in proposing “economic benefits.”

THE FIGHT to stop the implementation of the K to 12 scheme is not yet over, as petitioners are set to file a motion asking the Supreme Court (SC) to reconsider its March 15 decision not to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the basic education reform law.

Rene Luis Tadle, lead convener of the Council of Teachers and Staff of Colleges and Universities of the Philippines and former external vice president of the UST Faculty Union, maintained that the K to 12 law—which adds two more years to high school education—was unconstitutional and that the government was not prepared to implement it.

MARY JOY Ong-Laig, who taught journalism and theology in UST, passed away in her sleep last March 14 at the Missionaries of Charity’s Home of Joy in Manila. She was 80.

Laig, whose teaching career spanned nearly 50 years, was affiliated with the Faculty of Arts and Letters and the Ecclesiastical Faculties, mentoring countless students and seminarians.

A member of the Varsitarian staff, she earned her bachelor of literature in journalism in UST in 1957.

Laig co-authored Marriage and the Family: A Life of Love and Commitment with former rector Fr. Tamerlane Lana, O.P., and former assistant directors of the Institute of Religion Ana Ma. Ocampo and Thelma Santos. The book is the University-wide text for the subject Marriage and the Family.

THE UST Central Commission on Elections (Comelec) has vowed to shore up election activities this year and plans to hold mandatory debates ahead of the upcoming University-wide elections.

The debate, dubbed “Harapan,” will require candidates for the Central Student Council elections to answer “issue-based” questions, Central Comelec Chairwoman Alyssa Arreola told the Varsitarian. The debate will be held on April 12 to 14.

One issue to be tackled is the long-delayed Students’ Code.

“We will adopt the same strategy at the national level. But it will be student-centered,” Comelec Vice Chairman Raymond John Naguit said in an interview.

IT IS THE middle of dry season, but not all students in the Faculty of Arts and Letters have the “Type B” uniforms supposed to help them deal with the scorching heat.

Seven hundred eighty-eight Type B shirts out of 8,431 ordered have yet to be delivered by the supplier of the Artlets Student Council, a problem that has dragged on for a year.

Council President Jan Dominic Castro claimed the supplier, Bright Ravens Co., was found to be “non-existent” after an investigation by council officers. Linearity Shirts Trading produced the shirts under a subcontracting arrangement made by Mark Beltran, a Communication Arts student and owner of Bright Ravens, Castro said.

THE PHOTOGRAPH of a man carrying a basket of carrots that was posted on Facebook took the social media by storm and exposed the broadcast news media’s compromise of journalism rules just to beat the competition and spike up ratings and profits.

Jeyrick Sigmaton, a farmer from Bauko, Mountain Province, gained instant fame after netizens lavished praises on his image which showed his good looks despite his rather, er, lowly livelihood. Immediately, online media outlets picked up his story but it was giant GMA Network that had him signed into an exclusive contract last February.

The ruling of the Supreme Court last December banning the field trials of genetically modified organisms (GMO) is a blow not only to biotechnology but also to the Philippines.

GMOs are living organisms such as plants, animals and microorganisms whose genetic material has been artificially manipulated or altered in a laboratory through genetic engineering.

Several scientists and agriculture students have frowned on the high court’s decision, prohibiting field trials, propagation, commercialization and importation of GMOs, unless there is an administrative order that will dictate otherwise.