Volume XC, No. 12 • August 12, 2018 THE OFFICIAL STUDENT PUBLICATION OF THE UNIVERSIT Y OF SANTO TOMAS Manila, Philippines
New pumps eyed vs flooding in UST By JOB ANTHONY R. MANAHAN UST officials have bared plans to improve drainage and pumps on campus under a two-year flood management project. The Facilities Management Office (FMO) director, Fr. Dexter Austria, O.P., said continuous road elevation around the University is causing flooding inside the University. Aggravating the situation is the difficulty of pumping out flood waters trapped inside the campus. “UST was built to withstand certain flooding. What happened is the roads around it were elevated... UST was unable to catch up,” Austria told the Varsitarian in an interview. Austria said the University needs a mechanism that would ensure that flooding outside would be gone before the pumps drain flood water out of the campus. “[In the] previous years, we saw that we need certain pumps for the water, for the internal flood of UST to get out of the campus. However, flooding around UST was massive, we cannot pump out water,” Austria said. FMO Assistant Director Albert Surla said the existing flood management system would be retained but would have enhanced RED RAINFALL WARNING. Three men walk on f looded Benavides Park in UST as heavy rains brought by Tropical Storm ‘Karding’ caused f looding features. Flood PAGE 5 in Metro Manila on Aug. 11. MICHAEL ANGELO M. REYES
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Wage hike, regularization soon for non-teaching staff — Rector By LADY CHERBETTE N. AGOT and MA. CONSUELO D.P. MARQUEZ THE NON-TEACHING staff hired by UST on a contractual basis will soon receive a pay hike from the freshmen tuition increase along with their regularization, said UST Rector Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, O.P. Dagohoy revealed that UST’s Economic Council, which oversees financial policies of the University, had considered the situation of workers with no benefits and tenureship.
“As a matter of social justice, we have to look into the situations of some of our employees who are nonregular,” Rector told the Varsitarian. The Economic Council is composed of the Rector, vice rector, vice rector for finance and five members of the Order of Preachers. Some UST workers interviewed by the Varsitarian aired concerns regarding the status of the regularization plan of the University following the approval of the tuition hike for freshmen last June. Some workers fear that the pay
Rector open to review of student handbook RECTOR Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, O.P. has said he was open to reviewing student policies amid criticism over the “conforme” document put online as a requirement for enrollment in the University this academic year. Provisions of the Student Code of Conduct and Discipline uploaded to the MyUSTe Student Portal were posted on social media last month, triggering an online firestorm against UST. The University, being a Catholic institution, prohibits cohabitation without marriage, engaging in relationships that are “contrary to the principles adhered to by the University and the teachings
of the Catholic Church,” crossdressing, and organizing or joining assemblies that would create “unnecessary noise or disturbance.” These offenses, which have long been in the UST Student Handbook, are punishable by suspension, non-readmission, expulsion or exclusion, depending on the gravity. “Definitely [we’re planning to look into it like] the way we responded to cases in the past,” Dagohoy told the Varsitarian at the sidelines of the opening exercises for the new academic year. Rector PAGE 5
raise taken from the tuition hike might be used as a “diversion” from the regularization plan. Dagohoy, however, clarified that the regularization of contractual workers in the University has nothing to do with the tuition hike. “[Regularization of workers] has nothing to do with tuition increase because whether we would have a tuition increase, the salaries of those who will be regularized will be coming from the operation,” Dagohoy said. Regularization PAGE 11
SHS principal named new Education dean FORMER UST Senior High School (SHS) principal Pilar Romero is the new College of Education dean, replacing Prof. Allan de Guzman. Romero was the first principal of UST SHS, holding office from 2015 to 2018. She had served as assistant to the Rector for administration and teacher of Christian Living in the Education High School. Romero was a recipient of 18th Dangal ng Gawad Benavides Award for her 35 years of service in the University. De Guzman served as Education dean for a brief tenure, from 2015 to 2018. The Metrobank outstanding teacher awardee has been appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte to the Teacher Education Council of the Department of Education, for a three-year term from 2017 to 2020. SAMANTHA-WEE LIPANA with reports from CHRIS V. GAMOSO
Record number of freshmen join ‘Welcome Walk’ THE UNIVERSITY welcomed 16,827 first-year students for Academic Year 2018-2019 with the annual Thomasian Welcome Walk or march through the historic Arch of the Centuries. As of Aug. 6, there were 12,866 first-year college students, 3,433 Grade 11 students in the Senior High School, 438 Grade 7 students from the Junior High School, and 90 Grade 7 students from the Education High School, records from the Office of the Registrar showed.
The new batch of college freshmen were the pioneer graduates of senior high school. The Faculty of Pharmacy admitted 1,627 freshmen, recording the most number of first-year students this academic year. The UST-AMV College of Accountancy and the Graduate School ranked second and third in terms of the number of freshmen, with 1,331 and 1,305 students, respectively. Welcome Walk PAGE 2
New Thomasians march through the Arch of Centuries in an annual welcome tradition for freshmen. ENRICO MIGUEL S. SILVERIO