Tag: Vol. LXXXVI

THOMASIANS were moderately satisfied with the University’s academic services, according to the results of the annual Student Satisfaction Survey for academic year 2013-2014.

Architecture got a score of 3.06 in last year’s exit survey, followed by the Conservatory of Music with a score of 3.09. This was only slightly higher from their average satisfactory rate of 3.07 since 2012, as cited from a previous report of the Varsitarian.

Joining the two colleges in the bottom five are the Faculty of Arts and Letters (3.10), the College of Commerce (3.14), and the College of Science (3.16). The Graduate School got the highest importance and satisfactory rate after recording scores of 3.77 and 3.50, respectively.

A STRICTER and more consistent implementation of the “no ID, no entry” policy will start this academic year.

Security Chief Joseph Badinas vowed to resolve “inconsistency issues” on campus security raised by Thomasians, admitting that there were few lapses last academ ic year.

Badinas said outsiders without official business would not be allowed inside the campus. He admitted it was a hard task monitoring people in public buildings like the UST Hospital, Santisimo Rosario chapel, and the UST carpark.

Joselito Pelagio, University head guard, said that if “inconsistency” of implementation by security officers would be proven, there would be corresponding disciplinary action.

FRATERNITIES or some form of associations for so-called male bonding have been a mainstay in the making of this nation, be it Rizal’s La Liga Filipina, or Bonifacio’s Katipunan, or as in recent cases, in ts unmaking: such as the college fraternities of the despised dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Zamboanga siege butcher Nur Misuari, and other criminals and corruptionists of our sordid history.

It is sad though that recently, fraternity hazing has ended yet another young life. Counting that and the several unresolved cases that still haven’t found the light of a solid court decision, we seem to have constituted a nation of barbarians masquerading as brothers.

THE HINDU greeting, “Namaste” honors the divinity that dwells inside every man—the God within the person, the place where the universe resides.

Even the Greek philosopher Plato championed the idea of a separate world of Forms from our physical world—the world of Forms being the place where the perfection of all physical things come from.

To him, it was this divinity that our souls aimed to find and eventually to return to, for a perfect immortal soul only belonged in the perfect and immortal world it hailed from—and perfection has always been the struggle man has always troubled himself with, the search for it being the ultimate end to their means.

THE FACT that the Central Student Council (CSC) has conducted several meetings with the Office for Student Affairs to revise the Students' Code, which President Ina Vergara expects to be ratified in August, means the charter is on top of the student government's priorities.

Considering the tedious process of reviewing and revising, sudden changes in administration (the code sat through three rectors), and at times, tasks that need immediate attention, like the Quadricentennial celebration in 2011, it is not surprising that passing the charter would take time.

Protecting and promoting the rights of the 45,000-strong UST student body is not an easy task, else it would not have taken 10 years for the code to be ratified.

DURING President Barack Obama’s brief visit to the country last April, he attended the Global Electric Transportation’s (GET) launch of the Pangea City Optimized Managed Electric Transport (Comet), which aims to lessen the country’s 90 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions as of last year.

The Comet, which use US-based Pangea Motors and LLC technology, is designed especially for Manila’s busy streets and can run for 100 km in a single full charge with electricity. The first 30 Comet vehicles were deployed last month and by the end of 2016, the government aims to replace 30,000 diesel-fuelled jeepneys roaming in the Metro with 15,000 of these Comet units.

THE UNIVERSITY increased its freshmen admission this year despite overcrowding in several colleges, but is already making adjustments to accommodate the Thomasian population by utilizing new classrooms and fixing class schedules.

As a solution to overcrowding, the new Thomasian Alumni Center will be opened by the first week of regular classes for several colleges.

UST Rector Rev. Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, O.P. said 43 new classrooms at the Alumni Center that are expected to be used by the College of Tourism and Hospitality Management, the Faculty of Engineering, and the Faculty of Arts and Letters (Artlets).

NOW THAT the University has moved its academic calendar closer to the height of the monsoon season, will it be able to endure the inevitable rain and flooding inside the campus?

Flooding during the rainy season is a usual event for Thomasians, which is why UST has fortified its plans for crisis management this coming school year.

Lawrence Pangan, Facilities Management Office (FMO) in-house engineer, said flooding inside the University depended on how well the drainage system would work outside the campus.

WORK for a cause, not for applause.

This was the principle that architect Daniel Lichauco followed when he designed a project for LoveYourself Anglo Community Center, an HIV/AIDS testing center that opened last June 22 in Shaw Boulevard.

Together with his associates in the Archion Architects firm, Lichauco sought to create a comfort zone for HIV/AIDS patients where they can share each other’s thoughts and experience.

“The design of the place is to provide them a place where they can be tested and talk to somebody,” he said.

The clinic has both public and private space where processes of the HIV screening can be done. Six counseling rooms and a doctor’s exam room are also open in the center.

A DESIGN for a storm-proof house has won for a Thomasian architecture graduate the top prize in a competition organized in response to the devastating effects of climate change.

Lara Therese Cruz bagged the award, which came with a P150,000 cash prize, during the Build Forward architectural design competition last May 28. Her entry was a design for a climate-adaptive house.

The recent typhoon Yolanda that clobbered the Philippines left parts of the Visayas region in ruins and called the attention of many organizations to lend a hand.

Many charitable institutions emerged but the Department of Science and Technology, together with the Ortigas & Company and Habitat for Humanity, found another way of helping to the Yolanda victims.