Tag: No. 4

A second-year UST medicine student was electrocuted while braving floodwaters on España Boulevard amid the onslaught of Typhoon "Mario" last Sept. 19.

The same live wire that killed Siegfreid Nathan Arcilla, 22, also victimized two others that day. But Far Eastern University student Cedric Fabie, 18, and hotel employee Glendon Benedicto, 22, survived.

Arcilla was killed after his umbrella touched the live wire near UST's Gate 1 around 5 p.m., police investigation showed.

Vendor Radel Sumagang saw the victim lying on the ground and sought the help of UST security guard Geronimo Mazo. But Arcilla did not reach the hospital alive.

THE CENTRAL Student Council (CSC) has introduced a new form for student complaints against fellow students, faculty members, administrators, support staff, and organizations.

The “STRAW Form,” launched during the Students’ Rights and Awareness Week (STRAW) held Oct. 20-24, can be obtained online or from the CSC office, the Office for Student Affairs (OSA), and college student councils. The form must be enclosed in an envelope and submitted in drop boxes at the OSA and council offices.

According to the project proposal, the presidents of CSC and the college student council will represent the complainant in investigations. Complainants may seek the assistance of a lawyer.

FACULTY of Civil Law Dean Nilo Divina has called on students to raise their “concerns” directly to his office or to the student council, in response to anonymous posts on Facebook.

Divina released an open letter last Sept. 19 through the Civil Law Student Council’s official Facebook page, addressing students who had anonymously vented “their frustrations and disappointments with the [faculty], its professors, or fellow students” on pages such as “UST Law Files.”

THE COLLEGE of Architecture has adopted a new “student-centered” teaching system with the full implementation of an “Outcomes-Based Education” (OBE) curriculum this semester.

Architecture Dean John Joseph Fernandez said the OBE curriculum would be focused on the teaching strategies of professors, rather than the subjects, to facilitate students’ learning.

“With OBE, we aim to explain to the students the things that they did wrong and make them fully understand,” Fernandez said in an interview.

In UST, Architecture students are required to submit three plates for their design subjects.

AMID glaring cases of police corruption and incompetence, notably the kidnapping of two men and stealing P2 million in broad daylight on Edsa by eight policemen, some of them already convicted administratively of graft cases against them, President Aquino has stood by Director General Alan Purisima of the Philippine National Police (PNP), insensitively declaring that he was standing by his man.

Last September 20, ready-to-wear retail giant Bench mounted its biennial denim and underwear fashion show, “The Naked Truth,” at the Mall of Asia Arena. Entertainment celebrities walked down the ramp wearing only their undergarments, a scene which earned applause and awe from thousands in the hall and tens of thousands in the virtual world.

People had been flocking to what amounted to a soft-porn carnival for several years now, but it was only this year when a hue and cry was raised. What caught the attention of feminist groups was actor Coco Martin emerging on stage as a circus ring master pulling a female acrobat looking like a circus animal on a leash. Netizens said they were “disgusted” and women’s rights activists said the scene demeaned women.

THOUGH ManilArt never fails to enthrall with its annual stint, it is quite a depressing sight to see how the audience it consistently draws is the same brood of quintessential art enthusiasts.

The crowd has never diversified. There were the heftily-priced artworks displayed—having the participation of more than two dozens of local art galleries and a multitude of prized Filipino artists—in lieu of the mellow music and complimentary comestibles.

How likely, can we presume, that these factors intimidate the mid-class level to attend events alike?

Research from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) showed an impending “big one”–an earthquake of at least 7.2 magnitude from the West Valley Fault that could devastate Metro Manila.

Renato Solidum, Ph.D., the director of PHIVOLCS, said about 31,000 deaths, 14,000 to 385,000 injured, and at least P2.6 million of economic losses are at stake should the earthquake hit an unprepared Metro Manila.

“We are not saying that the next earthquake from the fault will be [magnitude] 7.2,” Solidum said. “We are saying that the fault is capable of releasing an earthquake of that strength.”

FROM spiders to heights to ghouls and goblins, science deconstructed fear as a mixture of chemicals designed to ensure our survival.

However, fear maybe just a tip of a psychological iceberg. It stems from a need to help the human body respond to dangerous situations.

Rosalito De Guzman, M.D., a professor from the College of Science, explained that aside from being a natural occurrence, fear also helps a person detect threats.

Referred to as the “fight or flight reaction,” fear is provoked by threats that urge a person to decide whether or not they should “fight” the fearful situation or “flee” from it.

UNDER a pink blanket, “Mary” seemed like just another patient shivering from the breeze coming out of the air-conditioning unit in the corridors of the University of Santo Tomas Doctors' Clinic.

Wheelchair-bound and smiling, Mary had bright eyes that had no trace of the disease that was out to get her life. She has been having a hard time moving her limbs for the past two years.

Raymond Rosales, M.D., a specialist on nerve-muscle movement disorders, diagnosed Mary with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Chances are, Rosales said, Mary may eventually succumb to total paralysis. With no cure for the disease, Rosales said about four percent of ALS patients undergoing treatment barely make it past a decade.