Noynoy Aquino is probably the first President of the Philippines who has recommended to Congress that the budget of the state university and college (SUC) system be cut. At the apex of this system is the University of the Philippines (UP), which received a 20% cut which is around 1.39 billion pesos. In the past, [...]
A few billions and the future of Philippine science
July 1, 2009 By 48 Comments
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will go down in history as the only Malacanang tenant to seriously consider the importance of investing in big scale science infrastructure. While previous presidents have paid lip service to the importance of science, their words did not match the budget appropriations, until Gloria came around. Gloria has issued an executive order [...]
Its college entrance exam time!
June 23, 2009 By 19 Comments
Friends who have kids about to enter college have been pestering me on how to improve their kids chances of getting into 1) UP, 2) Ateneo 3) DLSU and 4) UST. The kids are in the process of lodging applications for admissions in the university. Even a monsoonal downpour wasn’t able to disperse a long [...]
Are films shown in UP exempt from the MTRCB?
March 18, 2009 By 19 Comments
When I was an undergrad in 1988, a student organization at the University of the Philippines (UP) whose name escapes me, sponsored a screening at the then UP Film Centre of what could be the most boring film in human history, Scorsese’s “Last Temptation of Christ”. If I am not mistaken, then MTRCB chair Manoling Morato slapped an X [...]
UP @ 101: Now comes the reality check
March 4, 2009 By 5 Comments
Finally the tsismis that the University of the Philippines (UP) won’t be able to immediately attend to one important provision of the 2008 UP Charter (the one on the provision on raising salaries) is now made official. . For those profs and staff who are “nagpapakabayani sa UP” this hardly is a surprise.
UP Conyo, Jumping Jologs and the Dark Side!
February 19, 2009 By 26 Comments
Enclavement
February 17, 2009 By 17 Comments
The Great Wall of China for many centuries helped secure the Great Eastern Empire from the nomadic hordes such as those led by gentlemen like Attila the Hun (who instead turned westward and laid waste to the northern frontiers of the Roman Empire and hastened its eventual disintegration). The city of Constantinople fared almost as [...]
The “Tibak” as a fossilized meme, notes on the ACLE and Secularism in UP
February 5, 2009 By 27 Comments
Yesterday was the semestral alternative class learning experience (ACLE) day in UP Diliman. Sponsored by the University Student Council (USC), student orgs organize and invite speakers on every subject imaginable. Every year students invite me and this I usually accept unless I have prior engagements. Without the strictures of the course syllabus, students seem to [...]
Save the OSR
January 25, 2009 By 8 Comments
The Office of the Student Regent (OSR), is now undergoing its greatest challenge since its inception. The student regent is the lone representative of the whole University of the Philippines’ student body in the Board of Regents (BOR), the university’s highest policymaking body. When the new UP charter was ratified, it requires a referendum that will ratify the existing Codified Rules for Student Regent Selection (CRSRS). According to the UP Administration, the referendum could only be valid if more than half of the UP student population will participate.
The centennial party’s over and now comes the hard part
December 24, 2008 By 7 Comments
Recent Comments