FOUR DEPARTMENTS of the Faculty of Arts and Letters (AB) have updated their elective lineup to broaden the knowledge of students in their respective areas of expertise.
The Philosophy and Legal Management departments established general elective courses on St. Thomas Aquinas and Philippine law, respectively, in January.
Meanwhile, the Sociology department began offering its elective on city life to the College of Architecture during the first term. The Economics department will also offer an elective on sustainability to Artlets starting academic year 2025-2026.
In interviews with The Flame, each department head shared their goals and reasons behind the establishment and expansion of their elective offerings.
Introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas
The Philosophy department’s new elective called “Introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas” teaches the life and legacy of the University’s patron saint.
Department chair Prof. Marella Bolaños said the course is essential in shaping the identity of Thomasians, citing the need for an “organic affinity” with their patron.
“We have noticed that students from UST finish their courses without really knowing so much about Aquinas. It’s ironic how we call ourselves Thomasians when, in fact, our knowledge about who St. Thomas is, [is] very limited,” Bolaños said.
“As Thomasians, we should learn about the life and the contributions of St. Thomas Aquinas not just in Theology but also in Philosophy. The philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas remains relevant to this time. His thoughts, just like all the other philosophers, can still aid us in navigating and understanding our current predicaments,” she added.
For the students to gain an “intimate” understanding of the saint, the course adopted a historical and thematic approach to teaching Aquinas’ impact during his time while guiding them through his key philosophical inquiries. The elective is being offered to first-year students from the Philosophy, History and Literature departments. It is administered by the Faculty of Philosophy acting dean Fr. Christopher Garinganao, O.P., who is part of the Priory of St. Thomas Aquinas.
According to Bolaños, former Philosophy department chair Prof. Paolo Bolaños began proposing the subject to University administrators in 2016.
Philippine Legal, Judicial, and Tax Systems
The Department of Legal Management has also introduced a new elective course designed to help students navigate the complexities of the country’s laws called “The Philippine Legal, Judicial, and Tax Systems.”
Department head Teodoro Lorenzo Fernandez said the subject seeks to equip students with essential knowledge about how laws affect their daily lives and their future careers so they would understand their rights and obligations in a community.
“Everything that you do is regulated by law, whether you’re aware or not aware, it’s there. The thing is, we cannot use ignorance as a defense. What if we have this scenario where we can all say, ‘Sorry, I don’t know the law,’ right? then you have chaos, you have anarchy,” Fernandez said.
The department head said the elective began as an effort to instruct students without law courses about the legal frameworks that govern society. He also requested for it to no longer be offered to Legal Management students because their curriculum already covers similar topics.
While not entirely unique in its approach, the subject may use methods like the Socratic method that is commonly used in law courses, Fernandez said. This involves reading assignments followed by class discussions where students are encouraged to engage with the material through questioning sessions.
According to Fernandez, a challenge law educators face is overcoming the students’ “apprehension or disdain” for legal matters due to unfamiliarity with these subjects. By introducing these concepts early on, Fernandez hopes that the department can foster more informed and “law-abiding” citizens.
“If we get one more soul or a few more souls, meaning a few more students, to get to appreciate our rule of law so they would not be harmed later on because they know that there are these laws—there is a judicial system, that there is a tax system—then that’s a win for us, right?” the department chair said.
“It’s not just about whether the course is successful, it’s more of ‘was UST successful in training or shaping the mind of its students?’ he added.
Only Journalism and Creative Writing students may take the elective course.
Sociology of the City Life
The Department of Sociology expanded its course, “Sociology of the City Life,” as an elective for College of Architecture students to help them learn about the lived experiences of Filipinos in the urban setting.
Department chair Asst. Prof. Antonino Tobias IV said discussing how infrastructure development affects marginalized communities is important in “raising the consciousness” of Thomasians.
“Sociology is really something [that] tries to open the minds of our students towards the different issues and problems faced by our society… So we look into the gap between people who are being displaced in the name of development and also the alienation of a lot of people who could not fit into the standards that [have] been imposed by an urban society,” Tobias said.
Inspired by the concept of “Kamaynilaan” or Metro Manila, the elective aims to foster an authentic outlook on city life among the students by drawing from their experiences when studying and living in the country’s capital region.
“[The course] talks about the dreams and aspirations of many people in the rural society that have somehow been misled by the misinformation about the urban life,” the department head said.
“You have to also try to consider that the way things are being marketed in our society, the way they sell the urban life is somehow unrealistic. So we have to also promote the real context of city life,” he added.
Among the activities facilitated in the course is community outreach, which seeks to further enrich the students’ practical knowledge while providing them with hands-on experience in the field.
“We always believe that the real classroom is the society and we also believe in the experiential learning from what we have gathered in the four corners of the classroom and try to apply it and analyze the situation of what is ideal versus what is practical by looking at the real situations of our communities,” Tobias said.
“Sociology of the City Life” has been a core course in the department’s program since 2021. With the subject’s inclusion as an elective in the College of Architecture, Tobias seeks to offer it to other AB programs in the future.
Sustainable Development
After adopting major revisions in its curriculum, including the inclusion of an on-the-job training program, the Economics department will also introduce a sustainable development elective next academic year.
Economics chair Assoc. Prof. Alain Jomarie Santos said the elective’s creation stemmed from concerns that sustainability practices are only being promoted in a school setting but are not applied to the real world, where various socioeconomic and environmental problems arise.
“It’s good that UST is now observing sustainable development practices, but my problem is that outside the gates of UST, sustainable development is still missing,” he said.
Santos said video materials, case studies and conferences would be some of the teaching methods used to “illustrate” the prevalent issues in society, such as climate change and deforestation. Faculty members assigned to the course would also consider “environmental, social and governance” factors in teaching the course, he added.
“Definitely, it should start with discipline and with discipline it should now be something that can be exemplifying the right things to do—so that’s what I’m looking for. That’s why everything should start in properly educating all our students about sustainable development,” the Economics department head said.
The elective will only be available to AB students during its initial rollout and may expand into a university-wide elective if carried out successfully, he added.
After the faculty underwent a major reorganization, the Economics and Sociology departments were relegated from a university-wide to a college-level status, meaning their courses would no longer be regularly offered to other colleges in UST.
Meanwhile, the Legal Management program was elevated to department level. The Philosophy department was unaffected by the restructuring. F — with reports from Trisha Tamio
