Tag: October 1, 2010

A VATICAN official is coming for the 10th International Council of Universities of St. Thomas Aquinas (Icusta) that will be held in the University next year in time for the UST Quadricentennial, the Office of the Rector has confirmed.

Zenon Cardinal Grocholewski, prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, and effectively a member of Pope Benedict XVI’s “Cabinet,” will be the special guest for the Icusta meeting on January 26 to 28, which coincides with UST’s Quadricentennial celebration.

Icusta is an international association of Catholic institutions of higher learning that adhere to the ideals and teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas.

WELL-KNOWN artists and celebrities return to their alma mater to pay tribute to Thomasian art in UST Artists for UST, held last September 18 at the St. Martin de Porres Auditorium.

“The show melded the visual and the performing arts and was part of the celebration of the Quadricentennial,” said actress Candy Pangilinan, director of the event.

At the entrance of St. Martin de Porres Building, guests were welcomed by the Science Glee Club and the Faculty of Arts and Letters Chorale, while The Faculty of Engineering’s One Voice, accompanied by the UST Symphony Orchestra, entertained the crowd inside the auditorium before the start of the program.

UST FACULTY Union President Dr. Gil Gamilla has filed a libel complaint against nine former union officers who accused him of impropriety over the alleged illegal release of P9.5 million in union funds to a property developer in 2006.

Gamilla filed the complaint before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office last August 10, less than a month after the formation of the Committee on Peers (COP), a body that will probe the disbursement of millions in union funds to a failed property project.

SOME SAY that walking through murky water on a rainy day is a rite of passage for any Thomasian. With UST standing on España Boulevard, the catch basin of Sampaloc area, one’s most probable choice is to endure this “baptism” on flood that easily rises in and around the University.

But the water brought about by tropical storm “Ondoy” on September 26 last year was more than what most people expected, leaving an estimated 3, 000 people struck by its depth and stuck with limited food on campus.

THOMASIANS recorded a lackluster performance in the recent mechanical and electrical engineering licensure exams, posting 71.43 percent and 48.44 percent passing rates, respectively.

Last year, 51 of the 60 Thomasian examinees or 85 percent passed the mechanical engineering board exam, making the University the second top-performing school in the 26 to 85 examinees category. This year, only 50 of the 70 who took the exam passed.

This year’s national passing rate was 66.78 percent, higher than last year’s 60.47 percent.

In the electrical engineering licensure test, only 31 of the 64 examinees from UST passed, lower than last year’s 58 percent, when 34 of 59 examinees passed.

A CENTURY after he was born, the “poor boy from Lubao” was honored by his alma mater through a memorial lecture extolling his legacy.

Titled “Celebrating the Life, the Lifework and the Legacy of President Diosdado P. Macapagal: A Reflective Recollection and Commemoration,” the lecture last September 11 in the Thomas Aquinas Research Center was attended by Macapagal’s kin, including former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“[He gave us] a sense of history, the changing of the independence date, making us nationalistic,” said Hilarion Henares, Jr., head of Macapagal’s National Economic Council.

SHARING the same values and Spanish legacy, the University and the Chilean Embassy celebrated Chile’s bicentenary in UST last September 19.

“We (Chile) share the same values [with UST] like the concept of family, nation, and the Church,” Roberto Mayorga, ambassador of the Republic of Chile to the Philippines, earlier said in an interview with the Varsitarian after the Rector’s report last September 8.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Cornejos, who also attended the event, likewise said UST and Chile share a “Hispanic past and common vision of peace and development.”

THOMASIAN-LED corporations will showcase their excellence in commerce and trade on October 8 at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

Jollibee Foods Corporation’s Tony Caktiong, Mercury Drug’s Viviene Que-Ascona, and Joel Cruz of Aficionado perfume, among other Thomasian businessmen, will join the Thomasian Global Expo.

UST Alumni Association president Robert Sy, one of the organizers of the event, said the expo will also include job fairs, design and construction shows, shopping stalls, and wellness festivals.

Sy said the project was conceived as to highlight the Thomasian-owned and Thomasian-led corporations in time for the University’s Quadricentennial celebration come January 2011.

THE FRIENDSHIP of the country and China will remain forever despite the hostage crisis that killed eight Hong Kong tourists last August 23, a Chinese diplomatic officer said.

Wu Jian Hua, secretary of the cultural division of the People’s Republic of China Embassy, said the Quirino Grandstand hostage crisis was an isolated incident, adding that the two countries’ friendship will remain.

“Our friendship with the Filipinos is deeply ingrained and the hostage incident is an isolated case. The friendship with the Filipinos will remain forever,” Hua said during the launching of a photo exhibit showing the contributions of the Chinese community to the country at the Tan Yan Kee Student Center last September 9.

FACULTY of Arts and Letters Student Council President Vincent Aljon Cifra placed second in the Intercollegiate Extemporaneous Speaking Contest last September 15 at the Senate in Pasay.

The contest was hosted by the Senate and the Metro Manila Toastmasters to commemorate the third International Day of Democracy.

Pauline Gairanod of Ateneo De Manila University, and Carlito Reyes of De La Salle University emerged champion and third place, respectively.

Six students from Ateneo, De La Salle, San Beda College, University of the East, University of the Philippines and UST joined the contest. Justinne Chynna V. Garcia