Tag: May 13, 2013

HAS UST relinquished its laurel as the country’s foremost producer of litterateurs?

The University has been downgraded to a Center of Development (COD) in Literature after failing to meet stringent requirements set by the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) to qualify as Center of Excellence (COE).

Aside from UST, Ateneo de Manila University’s Department of Filipino and Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro were also declared CODs under the CHEd memorandum order issued last April 15.

The University of the Philippines (UP)-Diliman’s Departments of English, Comparative Literature and Filipino at Panitikan ng Pilipinas; Ateneo’s Department of English; and De La Salle University’s Department of Literature were named COEs.

UST IMPROVED its standing in the recent licensure exams for teachers (LET) but slipped in the board exams for electronics engineers.

The University placed third in the roster of top-performing schools for secondary education and produced two topnotchers. Results from the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) showed that UST posted 92.16-percent passing rate in the March LET for the secondary level, significantly higher than last year’s 86.84 percent.

Forty seven out of 51 Thomasian examinees passed the test, 43 of which were first-time takers. Last year, 33 out of 38 examinees made the cut.

THE COLLEGE of Commerce and Business Administration is set to dissolve two “umbrella departments” to give way to three new departments that will allow students to choose their majors upon enrollment.

Next academic year, the Business Administration and Basic Business Education departments will be abolished while the Financial Management, Human Resource Development Management and Marketing Management departments will start operations.

Three chairpersons will oversee the three new departments, which were formerly handled by one chairperson.

FOR THE first time in Philippine election history, Catholic lay groups united to aggressively uphold the pro-life stance of the Catholic Church through the endorsement of candidates who would help protect family and the sanctity of life, despite the passage of the Reproductive Health (RH) law last year.

The “White Vote Movement” had endorsed Nancy Binay, JV Ejercito, Richard Gordon, Gringo Honasan, Marwil Llasos, Mitos Magsaysay, Koko Pimentel, Antonio Trillanes IV, Cynthia Villar and Juan Miguel Zubiri for senator, based on their positions on family and life issues such as RH, abortion, divorce and same-sex marriage.

MOST PEOPLE would assume that my taking up of journalism was due to my passion in writing since I was a student writer myself in high school. But I was actually inspired by my dream to become the next big thing in the publishing world.

I liken a journalist’s life to that of Andrea Sachs, the aspiring journalist turned personal assistant of a powerful fashion magazine editor in The Devil Wears Prada, and Rebecca Bloomwood, fashion journalist-wannabe in Confession of a Shopaholic.

Appealing and glamorous, such fictional characters are said to be involved in lipstick journalism, which stereotypes a journalist’s real job description.

In reality, journalism entails a life of responsibility and sacrifice.

NI MINSAN, hindi ako natuwa sa ideya ng pamamaalam—maliban sa pamamaalam na aking kailangang pagdaanan ngayon.

Sabi nila, mayroong dalawang klase ng paglisan: mayroong biglaang paglisan, na tulad ng mga taong pumanaw sa aksidente’t sakuna, at mayroon din namang mga pamamaalam na nakatakda na, tulad ng mga taong nasawi dahil sa malubhang karamdaman. Sa magkaibang paraan maaaring tanggapin ang biglaan at ang nakatakdang paglisan, ngunit, anu’t ano pa man, mayroon silang parehong katangian—anumang pamamaalam ang iyong danasin, tiyak na ika’y manlulumo’t masasaktan.

IS UST taking in too many students than its limited resources could handle?

The perennial overcrowding problem is affecting students’ learning experiences, particularly in the faculties of Engineering and Arts and Letters (Artlets) and the College of Commerce and Business Administration, which accounted for more than one-third of the UST student population in Academic Year (AY) 2012-2013.

Classrooms are in short supply in the three populous colleges. In Commerce, which had an average 3,947 students in AY 2012-2013, the student-to-classroom ratio was 123:1, based on the Varsitarian’s own computations. For Artlets, which had 4,235 students, the ratio was 151:1. Engineering, with more than 7,300 students, had the worst ratio at 162 students per classroom.

A “SMART” cane that optimizes rehabilitation, nanoparticles that detect harmful compounds in food and a crucial discovery that could lead to the reclassification of four plant species—these are some of the best theses produced for academic year 2012-2013.

And did you know that playing boxing on Wii is indeed a good exercise? That’s the finding of a group of Rehabilitation Science students, who joined those from the College of Science and the Faculty of Engineering in conducting some of the most interesting researches on campus.

A group of biology students discovered the real generic identities of Canthium—an endemic species of flowering plant that comes in the form of shrubs and small trees—that should be bound for reclassification.

A CHARCOAL that enlivens the soil and reduces carbon emissions has finally reached the country’s farmlands.

Agricultural wastes can now be converted into charcoal which can serve as an excellent organic fertilizer while capturing carbon molecules and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) trapped in the atmosphere. Thus said agriculturists during the first Philippine National Biochar Conference held at the Philippine Social Science Center in Diliman, Quezon City last April 17.

BEING a beauty queen was just a childhood dream. Years later, Thomasian Joanna Cindy Miranda is now a pageant winner, having been picked Bb. Pilipinas-Tourism at the Big Dome last April 14.

“I knew I could do it, that’s why I joined. I would not have given up my hosting career if I thought I was not yet ready. I told myself, 'This is it,'" said Miranda, a former host of Wil Time, Big Time at TV5.

The 23-year-old Miranda, who was among the four winners in the annual pageant, was no stranger to beauty pageants. A 5'9" stunner, she was the first runner-up in the Miss Thomasian Ideal Personality in 2010. It was the same competition that produced Miss Universe runner-up Janine Tugonon, who bagged the UST title last year.