Tag: No. 6

AFTER five years of nearly perfect passing rates, the University finally achieved a 100-percent mark in the recent nursing licensure examinations.

A total of 402 Thomasian examinees passed the exam with 24 graduates making it to the top 10. Topnotcher Alyssa May Madriaga led the new batch of Thomasian nurses with a score of 86.40 percent.

“We made it through the challenging four years to earn our [Nursing] degree and the tough licensure examination to earn our license. [UST] is simply a wonderful ground for building and molding competent, compassionate, and committed individuals,” Madriaga said in an interview, adding that she did not expect to land the top spot.

THE VARSITARIAN, the official student publication of the University of Santo Tomas, last Jan. 18 launched a special publication commemorating Pope Francis’ historic visit to the Philippines last year, as it marked its 88th founding anniversary.

“Learn how to Love: Francis in UST, The Fourth Papal Visit” chronicles the Holy Father’s apostolic journey to the bastion of Catholicism in Asia, including his memorable meetings with Filipino families and young people in Manila, and his emotional trip to typhoon-stricken Leyte.

It also contains stories of Thomasians’ personal encounters with Pope Francis, as well as images capturing the most touching moments of the five-day papal visit.

CENTRAL Student Council (CSC) officers have reported some progress in the drafting of the Students’ Code, which has dragged on for years, last Jan. 26.

The draft will be sent to the Office of the Vice Rector for Academic Affairs for review by the end of the month, CSC officers said in a forum on the Students’ Code during the week-long Students’ Rights and Welfare event, which was held until Jan. 29.

Central Board Speaker and Faculty of Arts and Letters Student Council President Jan Dominic Castro said he was hoping the code would be subjected to a referendum before the student body.

THE UNIVERSITY has the highest number of programs with a “Center of Excellence (COE)” and “Center of Development (COD)” status among private institutions based on the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) accreditation.

UST has a total of 13 COEs and 11 CODs, making UST the private institution with the highest number of accredited programs.

Eleven programs were added to the University’s roster of programs with the COE status while six programs were declared as COD programs based on a CHEd memorandum released last Dec. 23, 2015.

The new COE programs are Hotel and Restaurant Management, Travel Management, Medical Technology, and Pharmacy while Chemical Engineering and Psychology were upgraded to COE from their COD status.

WITH the Central Student Council (CSC) elections in the horizon, the UST Central Commission on Elections (Comelec) has accredited two University-wide political parties, but cancelled the registration of another.

In a resolution released last Jan. 19, the Central Comelec said Lakas Tomasino Coalition (LTC) and Lakas ng Diwang Tomasino were able to comply with the requirements set by the UST Students’ Election Code of 2011, despite the late submission of party registration documents.

THE FACULTY of Pharmacy will offer a clinical pharmacy program as a second-degree course exclusively to registered Thomasian pharmacists beginning next academic year.

Pharmacy Dean Aleth Therese Dacanay said the new program would be offered in compliance with international requirements.

“Based on environmental scanning, many of our BS Pharmacy graduates have the capacity to work offshore. However the four-year curriculum does not qualify them to do so because the requirement is a five-year program,” Dacanay said in an email to the Varsitarian.

“[Because of this], they are applying in other schools offering the program to comply with the minimum requirement for equivalency in other countries,” she added.

NO AMOUNT of bars can hinder a person’s constitutional right to vote.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care (CBCP-ECPPC) urged Filipino detainees in a meeting last Jan. 14 to affirm their right to suffrage enshrined in the Constitution.

CBCP-ECPPC Executive Director Rodolfo Diamante said the commission had been lobbying the government for detainee voting for years, as prisoners were not allowed to vote until the 2010 national elections. This led to the relaunching of the Inter-Agency Committee on Detainee Voting.

POLITICAL satires do not provide solutions to Filipino’s problems, but they do help voters see social realities in the political realm, broadcast personalities told Thomasians in a forum last Jan. 26.

Lourd Ernest de Veyra and Jun Sabayton, both working for the Manny Pangilinan-led network TV5, said comedy and sarcasm were “natural” to Filipino culture.

“Nasa dugo natin ang sarcasm at pangungutya. [M]insan dapat nating alalahanin na ito ang sandata natin,” De Veyra said. “[M]aaaring hindi [masugpo ang mga social problems] sa pagkalat ng mga pangungutya sa mga politiko, pero kahit papano, mas gumagaan ang buhay kapag tumatawa tayo.”

UST will offer seven more programs next academic year, including psychology, journalism and nursing, due to “insistent demand” from applicants, the Office for Admissions announced last Dec. 23.

The following programs will now be open to enrollees for Academic Year 2016-2017: BS Biology, BS Biochemistry, BS Psychology, AB Journalism, AB Legal Management, AB Economics and BS Nursing. Applicants were allowed to change their priority or alternative programs by submitting a letter of request, personally or by courier, until Jan. 15.

FRIARS or brethren of the Order of Preachers, or the Dominicans, have much to be thankful for their order having reached its eighth centenary.

Their father, St. Dominic de Guzman, would be proud of the achievements of his sons, especially since the reform and renewal of the Church since the medieval ages have always been associated with the mendicant friar orders of which the Dominicans, along with the Franciscans, Carmelites, and Augustinians, are at the forefront.

His pride should extend to the whole Dominican family—not only friars, but sisters and nuns as well as the Third Order and lay confraternities.