Tag: Vol. LXXVI

IN A PENNILESS Christmas, one can’t help but look back at those years when “Christmas bonus” was significant amount. Hearing about scavenging families and drab forecasts for the coming year makes one feel like being in the Twilight Zone . While these scenarios seem too dreary, imagine what stories UST can tell of 60 years ago.

NAKATATAK na sa lahing Filipino ang maraming tradisyon at paniniwala. Tayo na yata sa buong Asya ang mayroong pinakamaraming “bakasyon.” Nasasalamin ito sa iba’t ibang kapistahan at pagdiriwang kung saan isinasantabi natin kadalasan ang mga nakagawiang gawain—isa na rito ang Pasko.

Kung papansinin, tila “araw ng pahinga” ito sa karamihan. Bukod sa summer vacation, ang panahon ng kapaskuhan ang pinaka-aantay ng marami dahil halos dalawang linggo ring pansamantalang titigil ang kanilang mga mundo.

I’VE BEEN afraid of changin’.

After attending Mass on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, I took the time to walk around the Benavidez Park, beholding the magnificence of the Main Building lit up by spot and Christmas lights, and at times, watch people pass me by. While the University administration has simply outdone itself in festooning the campus with lights this year, the churchgoers and other passersby walking under them were far more interesting to observe.

THE UST Singers have certainly come a long way from the ignored first practice sessions in the Main Bldg. lobby 12 years ago. Today, invitations pour in from different parts of the globe for them to render their world-renowned performance.

THE TEASER showed promise of a stately movie about the “greatest hero of them all,” who “was real.” What we got was a three-hour exposition of how Alexander “the Great” was a very flawed god-king whose intense pride and passion for flesh put into question his efficiency as a ruler so often that it was a wonder his empire didn’t crumble earlier then when it did. Let’s face it: Alexander wasn’t the kind of portrayal everybody expected, especially not from Oliver Stone.

CHRISTMAS is a season everybody enjoys. Think parties, merry gift giving, gay décor and that ever-festive fuzzy feeling we all love. Who, really, would turn their backs on those?

Probably, the Krank Family would.

Joe Roth’s holiday comedy Christmas with the Kranks is an adaptation of the John Grisham novel Skipping Christmas, a complete turn from the best selling legal thrillers The Runaway Jury, The Rainmaker, and A Time to Kill, all of which made it to the silver screen.

TO INTRODUCE practical and economical family planning for the poor of Payatas, the Institute of Church and Social Issues (ICSI) launched last Nov. 19 the “Parish-based Natural Family Planning (NFP) Among the Poor” at the Social Development Complex in the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City, in celebration of ICSI’s 20th anniversary.

The NFP program is headed by Fr. John Carroll, S. J. of ICSI’s Church and Family Life Program, in cooperation with Pro-Life Philippines and several other organizations.

THE COURT of Appeals has affirmed with modification the decision of Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas to take over the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) dispute between the UST Administration and the Samahang Manggagawa ng UST (SM-UST).

The Court’s 13th division, through Associate Justice Regalado Maambong, ruled that Sto. Tomas did not err in the award for the salaries increment and benefits. Associate Justice Martin S. Villarama, Jr. and Lucenito Tagle, the other members of the division, concurred.

AFTER testing sports socks and training UST and national athletes, the College of Rehabilitation Sciences (CRS) is set to assess the physical condition of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) this April to create a “standard” for the recruitment and training of its troops.

According to project head Prof. Janine Dizon of the CRS, 1,500 soldiers’ profiles will be recorded through physiological tests on their strength, endurance, flexibility, agility, and speed.

IN LINE with the University’s quadricentennial celebration in 2011, the Public and Alumni Affairs Office will update its list of alumni for possible networking activities, assess the responsiveness of UST’s curricula to the demands of the industry through a Graduate Tracking study, and increase efforts to inform Thomasians about in-campus concerns.

For more information, log on to http://www.ust.edu.ph/alumnisurvey.