The Varsitarian, the official student publication of the University of Santo Tomas (UST), will celebrate its 95th anniversary with a grand alumni homecoming on Jan. 14, 2023 at 4:30 p.m.
“Valik-Varsi: The Varsitarian Grand Alumni Homecoming” will be held at the lobby of the Blessed Buenaventura Garcia Paredes, O.P. Building (Thomasian Alumni Center), UST, España, Manila.
Among the distinguished “V” alumni expected to attend are former UST rector and Commission on Higher Education chair Fr. Rolando V. de la Rosa, OP, communications scholar Crispin Maslog, former Sen. Francisco Tatad, award-winning fictionist-essayist Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo, renowned artist Remedios Boquiren, Manila Bulletin columnist Nestor Cuartero, Associated Press chief correspondent in Manila Jim Gomez, award-winning poet Vim Nadera, and musician and broadcast personality Lourd de Veyra.
To perform in the event are the UST Symphony Orchestra and the UST Singers.
The Varsitarian alumni who will host the event are political journalist Christian Esguerra, ABS-CBN Corporate Communications head Kane Choa, and Eggshell Worldwide Communication, Inc. managing and PR director Ro-Charmaine Pidal-Pahate.
In 1928, the Varsitarian was established by lexicographer-writer-teacher Jose Villa Panganiban, the first director of the National Language Institute (now the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino).
Originally set up so that students, according to the paper’s first editorial on January 16, 1928, could have “something to write on,” the Varsitarian has become the oldest Catholic campus paper and the most influential student publication in the Philippines.
The Varsitarian’s pages have been graced by prominent figures in Philippine journalism and arts and letters– press freedom icon Jose Burgos Jr., columnists Teodoro Valencia, Joe Guevarra, and Neal Cruz, sports journalist Antonio Siddayao, fictionists Paz Latorena, Norma Miraflor, Rogelio Sikat, and Eric Gamalinda, National Artist for the Visual Arts J. Elizalde Navarro, and National Artists for Literature F. Sionil José, Bienvenido Lumbera, and Cirilo Bautista.
Varsitarian alumni have also distinguished themselves in public and ecclesiastical services– Vice President Emmanuel Pelaez, Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson, Sorsogon Governor Juan G. Frivaldo, Philippine Medical Association president Dr. Vicente Rosales Sr., Makati Medical Center Director Saturnino Javier, Jaro Archbishop Artemio Casas, Sister Delia Coronel, ICM, Mindanao Scholar and the first nun to be kidnapped by the Muslim secessionists in the 1970’s, and Sister Regina Kuizon, Superior of the Religious of the Good Shepherd Province of the Philippines and Japan.
For having produced outstanding figures in literature, arts, and culture, the Varsitarian has an entry in the Cultural Center of the Philippines’s Encyclopedia for the Arts – the only student paper to be so cited.