Volume LXXXVIIII, No. 8 • March 29, 2017 THE OFFICI AL STUDENT PUBLIC ATION OF THE UNIV ER SIT Y OF SA NTO TOM AS Manila, Philippines
ASH WEDNESDAY. Rector Fr. Herminio Dagohoy leads the Eucharistic celebration for Ash Wednesday at the Plaza Mayor last March 1.
UST PROPOSES 10% TUITION HIKE
“
We don’t want to hire professors who are not qualified. The students will suffer.
”
UST Rector Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, O.P.
In numbers The increase amounts to P138 per unit for firstto fourth year students.
By CHRISTIAN DE LANO M. DEIPARINE and MARIA CRISANTA M. PALOMA THE UNIVERSITY has no choice but to hike tuition next academic year in addition to using savings to keep its faculty and maintain school facilities amid the disruption caused by K to 12, UST Rector Fr. Herminio Dagohoy, O.P. has said. Dagohoy said the proposed hike would go to salary increases for faculty members and University personnel. “[T]here will be a new round of salary increases for the faculty. Basically, 70 percent should go to faculty members,” Dagohoy said in a chance interview with the Varsitarian last March 7. Dagohoy also cited fixed costs such as electricity, janitorial services and others. “We have a lot of fixed expenses that we
really have to maintain otherwise there will be complaints. We have to dig into whatever savings we had in the past … until we return to [normalization in] 2021,” he said. Dagohoy was referring to the normalization of the number of college enrollees in 2021 after the transition period of the K to 12 curriculum, which added two more years to the country’s basic education system. The proposed 10-percent tuition increase for the next academic year amounts to P138 per unit for first- to fourth-year students, P135 per unit for fifth-year students, P232 per unit for Civil Law students, P206 per unit for Graduate School students taking up master’s programs, and P252 per unit for those taking up doctorate programs. Tuition PAGE 5
Peralta, Fr. Villarroel honored in Gawad Ustetika PIONEERING anthropologist Jesus Peralta, who is also a former director of the National Museum, was given the Parangal Hagbong for lifetime achievements in letters during the Gawad Ustetika Awards of the Varsitarian at the Buenaventura Garcia Paredes, OP Building last March 9. Peralta is the first playwright elevated to the Hall of Fame of the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature in 1995. He won at least five first prizes in the prestigious annual literary derby. Also given posthumously the Parangal Hagbong was Spanish Dominican friar Fr. Fidel Villarroel for his important writings in Philippine historiography.
Fr. Villarroel, who died at the age of 87 last Oct. 23, is an applauded historian of the Catholic Church not only in the Philippines, but also in Asia. Associate Professor Maria Eloisa De Castro, who teaches history in the Faculty of Arts and Letters, received the award in behalf of Fr. Villarroel. Parangal Hagbong, which comes from an old Tagalog word in Quezon province meaning “laurel crown,” has been given by the Varsitarian since 1997 to UST alumni for lifetime achievement in letters. The first Parangal Gawad Ustetika PAGE 8
Peralta
ALVIN JOSEPH KASIBAN
‘Ched has no mandate to suspend field trips’ By MA. ANGELA CHRISTA COLOMA AN EDUCATION lawyer has criticized the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) for abusing its authority when it ordered a moratorium on offcampus activities after a bus crash in Rizal that claimed more than a dozen lives. Joseph Noel Estrada, UST alumnus and legal counsel of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines, said such decision is reserved to the courts. “[The moratorium] is beyond the power of Ched because it is not explicitly provided in the Ched law. [The issuance of a] hold order, suspension order [or] freeze order is in the nature of judicial or quasi-judicial power,” Estrada told the Varsitarian in an interview. Section 8 of Republic Act (RA) No. 7722 or the Higher Education Act of 1994 states that Ched is tasked to “formulate and recommend development plans, policies, priorities and programs on higher education and research.” Estrada said the suspension of educational trips Ched PAGE 5
CSC No. 2 running unopposed for presidency ELECTION season began in UST with only one student filing his certificate of candidacy for the highest position in the Central Student Council (CSC). Medical technology junior and CSC Vice President Steven Grecia of Lakas Tomasino Coalition (LTC) is the only candidate who filed a certificate of candidacy for presidency last. March 21. A total of 13 candidates are vying for CSC Executive Board seats this year, down from last year’s 18 candidates. Competing for the vice presidency are former College of Fine Arts and Design Student Council president and industrial design junior student Renz Santiago (Lakasdiwa) and speech and language pathology sophomore Gabriela Angela Sepulchre (LTC), former treasurer at the College of Rehabilitation Sciences Student Council. Hotel and restaurant management junior Alexandra Guevarra (LTC), travel management CSC Polls PAGE 3