Tag: November 21, 2014

THE UNIVERSITY emerged as the only top-performing school in the first-ever licensure examination for psychometricians, with seven Thomasians landing in the top 10, including first place.

UST also dominated the recent licensure examinations for teachers (LET) and mechanical engineers, but recorded a lower passing rate for certified public accountants (CPA), results from the Professional Regulation Commission showed.

LIKE a true steward of Christ, this Dominican priest instilled discipline in countless individuals enough to leave a legacy of academic excellence in the University.

Frederick Fermin, O.P., the second Filipino rector of the University of Santo Tomas, succumbed to old age last Oct. 27 at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center, Baguio City. He was 90 years old.

In his homily during the funeral mass for Fermin last Oct. 29 at the Santisimo Rosario Parish Church, UST Rector Herminio Dagohoy, O.P. praised his predecessor for his exemplary service to the University.

Dagohoy said that Fermin was a firm, but gentle man.

"Fermin was a man who had a sense of justice tempered with compassion and generosity,” Dagohoy said.

MORE THAN a year after being declared as Centers of Excellence (COE) and Centers of Development (COD), several programs of the University have not yet received the millions worth of assistance funds from the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd).

The delay in the release of the funds was due to the pending submission of liquidation reports and receipts of previous CHEd-funded projects by the University’s Office of the Internal Auditor to CHEd, said Journalism coordinator Jeremaiah Opiniano.

THE UST Faculty Union (USTFU) has asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its July decision junking the union’s P26-million claim for hospitalization and medical benefits for the years 1997 to 2003.

USTFU filed its motion for reconsideration last Sept. 15, arguing that the high tribunal made an error in holding that the claims of USTFU were barred by prescription or the period set by law within which the claims could be made, and that USTFU was not entitled to the medical benefits.

The dispute between USTFU and UST is over how much the latter would contribute to the former’s hospitalization and medical benefits fund, and whether it should be one-time or cumulative, given the annual increase in tuition.

DESPITE being the country’s biggest music school in terms of student population and a government-designated Center of Excellence (COE) since 1999, the Conservatory of Music is suffering from lack of facilities and equipment.

Music Dean Raul Sunico said he has yet to solve the classroom shortage 12 years after assuming his post. “We don’t have our own building, we’re just begging for classrooms [from the College of Education] year after year. There are no rooms for the students so they practice in hallways and even hold classes there,” Sunico said in an interview.

THE CENTRAL Student Council (CSC) launched a week-long campaign last Oct. 20 to 24 to gain more support from the Thomasian community for the passage of the proposed Students’ Code since it is not among the UST administration’s priorities.

“Kailangan nating aminin na hindi priority ng administration ‘yung pagpasa ng Students’ Code sa ngayon, kaya kailangan nilang maramdaman na gusto talaga nating maipasa ito ngayong taon,” Central Board speaker and Civil Law Student Council president Victor Villanueva said during the Students’ Rights and Welfare (STRAW) forum last Oct. 21.

Villanueva said local student councils are also to be blamed in the long-overdue approval of the code because they failed to actively involve the students in the issue.

THERE will be no entrance exams for Medicine freshmen next year as part of a transition process, following a decision by the University to finally transfer admissions to the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery to the Office for Admissions (OFAD).

Medicine Dean Jesus Valencia said the UST Board of Trustees, the highest policymaking body of the University, ordered the transfer of the processing of admissions of first-year medicine students to the OFAD earlier this year.

Medicine had been the only faculty or college in UST handling its own admission process.

“There’s a transition period and we have to facilitate and minimize the variables, kaya wala na munang entrance exam for Medicine this year,” Valencia said in an interview with the Varsitarian.

SCHOOL paper editors and writers are again calling for changes to the Campus Journalism Act of 1991 to ensure that freedom of the press is upheld on campus.

The 23-year-old Campus Journalism Act has been used to suppress, instead of protect, the rights of campus journalists, College Editors Guild of the Philippines President Marc Lino Abila said before the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education (CHTE) headed by Pasig Rep. Roman Romulo last Oct. 22.

“The Campus Journalism Act of 1991, which [should be protecting] press freedom at the campus level, has serious flaws that jeopardize  campus press freedom,” Abila said.

THE COMPENSATION of school employees to be affected by the K to 12 scheme should be the same as their current salaries, the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) has clarified.

CHEd Commissioner Cynthia Rose Bautista explained that the earlier announced monthly compensation of P30,000 and P15,000 for displaced teaching personnel and non-teaching personnel, respectively, were only estimates.

“We only came up with P15,000 because that is the average [salary] of the administrative staff, and P30,000 for the faculty,” Bautista said in a meeting with representatives from various universities and concerned government departments last Oct. 29. “Kung ano ang salary mo [before your displacement] ‘yun ang makukuha mo.”

NEW BULLYING cases involving fraternities emerged at the Faculty of Civil Law, just weeks after “standoff” incidents led to the suspension of fraternity members.

Records of the Civil Law Student Council showed that a freshman was publicly humiliated by one member of a fraternity, another freshman was beaten inside the Main Building comfort room by three fraternity members wearing brass knuckles, and another freshman was verbally abused and confronted inside the Miguel de Benavides Library.

Last Oct. 13, law fraternities Gamma Delta Epsilon and Aegis Juris were suspended following a complaint from the Office of the Bar Confidant regarding an alleged confrontation between the two groups during the second week of the bar examinations last Oct. 12.