Tag: March 9, 2009

TELEVISION has failed to promote values such as charity, fidelity, and chastity because of too much focus on entertainment, according to a University-wide survey conducted for the 5th UST Students’ Choice Awards for Television (USTv).

The annual USTv awards, the first award-giving body of its kind in the country, once again highlighted the need for media to produce programs rooted in Christian values.

THE INTELLECTUAL Holy Grail returns to their halls.

Pautakan hall-of-famer Faculty of Arts and Letters (Artlets) is back on its feet again after reclaiming the championship of the University quiz contest this year from a lowly seventh place finish last year.

Back in the top five from its two-year absence including a one-year break as hall-of-famers, Artlets overtook first runner-up Alfredo M. Velayo-College of Accountancy in the cerebral race with a 20-point lead last March 9 at the Medicine Auditorium.

HOW DOES one eat take-out at the Tan Yan Kee Student Center these days?

Not in Styrofoam containers anymore after Thomasian student leaders resolved to ban “Styro-wares” from the student center’s premises to “prevent the environment’s rapid deterioration.”

Officials of the Central Student Council, the Student Organizations Coordinating Council (SOCC), local student council presidents, and political parties agreed to make the building “Styro-free” during the 2nd Thomasian Leaders’ Congress last Jan. 30-31.

THOMASIANS did not have to endure long hours to know the results of the recent student council elections, with polls computerized University-wide for the first time this year.

All faculties and colleges, including UST’s two high schools, adopted the new polling system. Last year, only 10 colleges and faculties had automated elections.

Except for a brief power interruption last Feb. 20, which delayed voting at the Conservatory of Music, Education High School and UST High School, Tabon said the new polling scheme was “implemented well.”

THE ECONOMIC downturn felt in the country today started with uncontrolled spending in the United States, leading to an economic and financial meltdown in the West that has reverberated all over the world, a veteran business journalist said.

Delivering the 6th Jose Villa Panganiban Lecture, BizNewsAsia publisher and editor in chief Antonio “Tony” Lopez said America’s dependence on debt and the unchecked greed of its financial institutions has now put developing economies like the Philippines in a tough situation.

A THOMASIAN landed on the top 10 of the November 2008 nursing board exams, rising above the crop of UST examinees who were mostly repeaters.

Out of 19 Thomasian examinees, 10 of whom were repeaters, 12 passed, or an over-all performance rating of 63 percent, Nursing Dean Glenda Vargas said.

Leading the 12 Thomasian board passers is Joy Jennylyn Tan, who placed 10th with an 86.40-percent score.

Six first-time takers passed along with six repeaters. Former Varsitarian executive editor Andrew Isiah Bonifacio was among the successful examinees.

THE FIVE-YEAR college curriculum proposed by the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) supposedly to make the country’s education system at par with global standards may not really be necessary, according to the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Letters.

Artlets Dean Armando de Jesus said lengthening tertiary education is “just one perspective,” and that the improvement of the quality of education depended on the “government’s intervention.”

MEDIA’s role of spurring change is best emphasized when the government fails to do its job, a broadcast journalist told communication arts students in a forum last Jan. 29.

“Media is more reliable when the institution is not functioning well. The media should function with its utmost integrity,” ABS-CBN’s Karen Davila said.

Davila and fellow Correspondents host Abner Mercado were in UST for a campus tour and shared stories on how they struggled to create documentaries that could stir viewers and move government institutions to take action.

IN A DEPARTURE from ubiquitous pageants in the University, seven dogs of different breeds competed for a beauty title to promote responsible pet ownership among Thomasians.

The dogs showed their tricks in the first search for the Ideal Thomasian Nursing PETsonality last Feb. 13.

“The aim of the event is to promote a life for others and to be able to appreciate God’s love through these little creatures,” College of Nursing Student Council President Kathrine Bernadette Apostol told the Varsitarian.