University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Arts and Letters - Other Student Organizations

Other Student Organizations

The college is home to various student organizations.

Student regulatory bodies:

• Commission on Elections (AB COMELEC) - the official student elections authority of the college.

Student publications:

• The Flame - the official student publication of the college, which has produced internationally acclaimed journalists and award-winning writers.
• Dapitan - the award-winning literary folio of The Flame, named after Dapitan St., running at the north side of the college.

Student academic organizations:

• UST Artlets Economics Society (AES) - the official student organization of Economics majors; the Artlets is used a prefix to distinguish the group from the UST Economics Society, the organization of Economics majors in the UST College of Commerce and Business Administration.
• UST Asian Studies Society (ASSoc) - the official student organization of Asian Studies majors.
• UST Behavioral Science Society (BESSoc)- the official student organization of Behavioral Science majors.
• UST Communication Arts Students Association (CASA) - the official student organization of Communication Arts majors. They are a founding member of the Metro Manila Alliance of Communication Students, a federation of mass media academic organizations from different colleges and universities in Metro Manila. Also, it is an active partner of the Philippine Association of Communication Educators (PACE), an organization composed by many mass media professionals from all parts of the country. This society has the most number of guilds in the Faculty, namely: the CASA Cam, Reel, Rhetoric, MusiCASA, Footworks, Channel, Stage Talents, Ad-venture and Chronicle.
• UST Journalism Society (JournSoc) - the official student organization of Journalism majors.
• UST Legal Management Society (LM Soc) - the official student organization of Legal Management majors. The group is a founding member of the Philippine Alliance of Legal Management Societies (PALMS), a federation of legal management societies in different colleges and universities in the country. Also, LM Soc is a founding member of the Alliance of Legal Management Associations of the Philippines, Inc. (ALMAP, Inc.), the existing alliance of different schools from Luzon to Visayas proffering Legal Management as a discipline. In March 2001, LM Soc produced most of the year's academic and leadership awardees, including the top three graduates in the entire college.
• UST Literary Society (LitSoc) - the official student organization of Literature majors.
• UST Philosophy Council or Concilium Philosophiae - the official student organization of Philosophy majors. In 1998, the group started recruiting members from outside the Philosophy Department. The purpose is to promote philosophy and debate as an interesting discipline even to non-philosophy students.
• The UST Political Science Forum (TPSF) - the official student organization of Political Science majors, and currently the sole Political Science student-organization of the University of Santo Tomas. It serves as the bulwark of Political education and awareness in the Faculty and the University. It is affiliated with APSOP (Association of Political Science Organizations of the Philippines), a number of other organizations, and its faculty are members and officers of the PPSA (Philippine Political Science Association). The Political Science Society, its forerunner, was founded in 1980 by the batch of Atty. Reynaldo Lopez, who also co-founded the AB Student Council. In 1991, it was turned into The Political Science Forum, and in 1992 its Constitution was drafted by a Commission, part of which are Political Analyst Edmund Tayao, and Prof. Reynald Trillana who are AB Faculty Members.
• UST Sociological Society (USTSS) - the official student organization of Sociology majors.

Special interest groups:

• Artistang Artlets (AA) - the official theater organization of the Faculty.
• UST Chorus of the Arts and Letters (AB Chorale/ABC) - the official student choral group of the college; competes with the choral groups of the other colleges of the university; the only consistent placer in the top three awards of the Himig Tomasino
• AB Dance Synergy (ABDS) - the official dance troupe of the Faculty.

• AB Knighted Owls (AVA) - official drum line organization of the Faculty; seeking OSA recognition since its institutionalization as a committee of the ABSC in 2011.
• Artlets Basketball Team - the official student basketball team of the college; competes with other colleges in intramural games.
• Artlets Volleyball Team - the official student volleyball team of the college; competes with other colleges in intramural games.
• AB Pautakan Team - the official student quiz team of the college; competes in the annual university-wide Pautakan Quiz Competition sponsored by The Varsitarian, the oldest university-wide student publication in the Philippines. The AB team reigned as Pautakan grand champions in 1979, 1989, from 2002 to 2006, and 2009 beating all competing colleges across diverse fields of medicine, engineering, architecture, education, commerce, etc.
• AB Pax Romana- college based unit of the Central Pax Romana, the University's official Religious Organization.
• AB Football Club (ABFC)- the official student football team of the college; aside from competing with the other colleges and faculties in the University, this team also competes with tournaments outside the campus.

Student political parties:

• Alliance of Concerned Thomasians (ACT-Now!)- the newest political party in the college. Originally based on the Faculty of Engineering and College of Education, it transferred to FAculty of Arts and Letters on the year 2006. ACT-Now! is a local campus coalition of patriotic national parties and groups that are involved in parliamentary struggle. Also a pioneer member of the LTC, but pulled out their membership after a year. ACT-NOW spearheaded the campaign of Junk Mandatory ROTC in 2002 and voice of the victims of Hepatitis outbreak.
• DEKADA - the second oldest political party in the college; formerly referred to as "Dekada Nobenta" because of its foundation in December 2 of the year 1992; affiliated with the AKLAS (Alyansa ng Kristiyang Lakas) Central Political Party.
• Grand Alliance for Progress (GAP)- the first political party in the college to be established after the year 2000. During its early existence, GAP actively participated in the second People Power Revolution that toppled the regime of President Joseph Estrada. Also a pioneer member of the LTC, but pulled out their affiliation on 2006.

• The Students' Democratic Party (SDP)- the oldest student political party in the Philippines; established on June 12, 1981 during the Ferdinand Marcos regime; one of the student political parties that established the Lakas Tomasino Coalition (LTC), a university wide political party. SDP is still an affiliate party of the said coalition and is the ruling party in terms of number of Executive Board Officers since School Year 2009.