New Student Council presidents bared

After days of campaigns and preparations for this year's student council election, all colleges have now produced new set of student leaders for this school year. The election gathered thousands of votes from more than 9,000 Lyceans who trooped to Mabini Hall last July 10-11 and cast their favorites. Tight competition is how to describe the battle between 2 dominating parties, the Kalayaan and Independiente Party. In the end, the latter one produced the most elected officers.

Here is the list of new student council presidents of each colleges:

1. International Hospitality and Management- Deanne Mantes
2. Business Administration- Jade Jumarang
3. Nursing- Ma. Lyzl Tabora
   
4. Arts and Sciences- Patricio Dawn
5. Engineering- Rosemin Silva
6. Computer Studies- Tessa Laiza Bolor
7. International Relations- Glady Brojan

The elected presidents will then meet one another and will vote one person who will then become the President of the Lycean Student Government for this year.

You know how much you pay for education?

The blogger has done some petty research about the tuition fees of our dear university. Thanks to the help of our admissions staff (Ate Rach).

I know you guys are curious enough who pays the most for a semester's education. Let's take a look....

1. Arts and Sciences................................. 26,000.00
2. Business Administration .........................26,000.00
3. International Relations ...........................26,000.00
4. Computer Studies .................................32,000.00
5. Engineering ........................................30,000.00
6. International Hospitality and Management .....28,400.00

Whew!!!! 26k is already the blogger's tuition fee while still a student at UST--and that's 2 years ago. Just to let you know that our parents really have to work hard for our studies. These days, indeed, everything is going up.

CIR releases 2008 Journal

It is such a very pleasant feeling to know that your own speech will be published in a journal. I am referring to the first journal released by the College of International Relations last May. The Journal represents the unwavering efforts of the CIR Community to enhance their learning and skills toward the achievement of academic excellence that the Lyceum of the Philippines University strives to pursue. The Journal is a concentrated endeavor to acknowledge and project the potentials of the faculty members and the students, an encourages them to continually improve their professional competence and academic performance.

The Journal is divided into two parts: the speeches of the students who participated in the KSearch Asia Consulting, Inc-CIR English Language Oratorical Competition, and articles and speeches of the faculty members and college officials. The topics of the Speeches of students are on three very timely issues: English Competency, Poverty, and Terrorism.

The speeches of students included were from Erica Geisha Autea, Glady Brojan, Connie Ross Suarez, Dionell Chris Batoon (yours truly), Ma. Lourdes Cengca, Ricardo Benjamin Osorio, Toby Vigal and Charmie Binag.

The speeches from the CIR faculty included were from Dean, Ambassador Reynaldo Arcilla, Mr. Yuri Domingo, Mr. Jeorge Alarcon, and Prof. Gladys P. Nalangan.

Lyceum Debaters performed well at the World's Championships

The 28th World Universities Debate Championships was held last December 2007 in Assumption University in Pattaya, Thailand. The World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) is the world's largest debating tournament, and one of the largest annual international student events in the world

Our debaters who proudly represented our university and our country in the said event were the following: Suzy Claire Selleza, the captain of the team. She’s been debating for four years now, and has served the Lyceum Debate Society first as Keeper of the Purse (treasurer) and now as Grand Chancellor (president). She’s appeared on ANC’s Square Off with Barny Rivera and has broken into the octofinals of the National Debate Championship (NDC) twice. She’s also been to several other tournaments including the Asian Universities Debate Championship (AUDC) in 2006 in Manila, the Philippine Inter-Collegiate Debate Championship (PIDC) and its predecessor, the Inquirer Inter-Collegeiate Debate Championship (IIDC) and several other local inter-varsities (IVs). She’s taking up AB Legal Studies and is now on her fourth year. She plans to pursue Master’s Degree in International Relations or Public Policy abroad, most probably in the National University of Singapore.

The second member is JJ Domingo, a junior International Relations student. He started debating in high school under the Oxford-Oregon and Lincoln-Douglas formats. He adjudicated in the Inquirer Inter-School Debate Championship (IISDC) in Ateneo in 2005 and debated in several competitions including the IIDC, CSB IVs, UST IVs and the Manila AUDC. He stopped debating last year but I adjudicated in the ICU Tourney in Tokyo, joined some practices of Aoyama Gakuin University Debate Club in Yokohama and helped in the 2007 recruitment of the Sophia Debate Society in Tokyo.

The third and last member of the Lyceum team is Lourdes Cengca, they call her Cheeney. She served as the adjudicator. She's also from the College of International Relations. She already graduated last May, as Cum Laude (cheers!!).Like Suzy, she has broken into the octo’s of the NDC in Baguio last year. She adjudicated in the IISDC and several IVs, and debated in the Manila AUDC, IIDC, PIDC and NDC.

The Worlds uses the British Parliamentary style of debating. There are two sides, the government who proposes a case, and an opposition who opposses it. Each sides are divided into two benches: the opening and the closing teams. The opening team makes the case for the whole side, while the closing team extends the case further. That makes four teams in a round. The best team would get 3 points. The runner up gets 2, the third placer gets one point, and the last placer zero

In the preliminary rounds, the Lyceum was able to defeat a composite team from Princeton University (United States) and University of Alberta (Canada), University of Technology Sydney A (Australia), Brandeis University C (United States), University of La Verne C (United States), Rhodes University B (South Africa), International Islamic Univeristy E (Malaysia), Univeristi Malaya (Malaysia), teams from the Universiti Teknologi Mara (Malaysia), Colombo University (Sri Lanka), North-South Univeristy A (Bangladesh), Lahore University of Management Sciences B (Pakistan), Mahidol University (Thailand), Tokyo University A (Japan), Keio University A (Japan, EFL Champion) and Hanyang Univeristy D (South Korea)

Here's a summary of Lyceum's performance:
Total Points for Lyceum A- 15 points
Total Speaker Scores for Lyceum A- 1318
Over-all Philippine Ranking for Lyceum A- 8th
Over-all Worlds Ranking for Lyceum A- 148th
Total Speaker Score for J- 661
Total Speaker Score for Suzy- 657
Over-all Philippine Ranking for J- 28th
Over-all Philippine Ranking for Suzy- 30th
Over-all Worlds Ranking for J- 424th
Over-all Worlds Ranking for Suzy- 449th

(many thanks to thenutbox.i.ph for the article and pictures)

LYCEUM OFFERS FOREIGN SERVICE EXAMS REVIEW

Lyceum of the Philippines University (LPU) will offer a review course for the Department of Foreign Affairs’ (DFA) Foreign Service Examinations (FSO) from June 6 to August 15, 2008.
This is in answer to the need expressed by the DFA, which conducts a yearly FSO examination to recruit new officers in response to the expanding demands of the Philippine Foreign Service. The FSO exams are normally given in August or September following a pre-qualifying test given earlier in May.
LPU, through its College of International Relations, in its Intramuros campus, will offer the review course, consisting of 90 class hours over a period of five weeks, to those who have pre-qualified and other interested parties. LPU thus reaffirms its position as a leading institution in the teaching and study of international relations, diplomacy and foreign policy. Many of its graduates have joined the DFA, serving in various positions as ambassadors, career ministers, consuls general and others.
Teaching will be conducted through intensive and comprehensive lectures, allowing for questions and short discussions on a wide range of subjects including Philippine history, geography, politics and government, arts and cultural conditions, consular practices and migration, maritime problems and issues, foreign policy, international law—politics-economics-trade, diplomatic practice and protocol, English essay writing and others. There will be no written test, except in the English Essay Writing where grades may be given. The curricula, it is explained, is based on the fact that the FSO exams are keenly attuned to test examinees on the depth of their understanding and knowledge of events and developments, their analytical capability and English writing skills.
All lecturers are experienced diplomats, university professors and other professionals. Classes will be held every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 5:30-8:30 PM, at the LPU campus, Muralla cor. Real Sts., Intramuros, Manila. Registration period will be from April 21 to May 31.
Interested participants may visit LPU or call telephone 527-8251 to 56 local 132.

(article courtesy of http://www.lyceumphil.edu.ph/)