[2] Established in 1896 with the name Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, following Spanish tradition,[3] the faculty is the first and oldest liberal arts tertiary school in the Philippines.

[4] The University of Santo Tomas started offering courses in liberal arts and philosophy since its foundation in 1611.

[5] The program was discontinued in 2007 because of Philippine government regulations that would stretch the time to complete the AB-BSE degree to at least 5 years and 4 summers.

[11] In recent years, it has been yielding one of the largest number of graduates (approx.750) next only to the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Engineering and UST College of Commerce and Business Administration and University of Santo Tomas Alfredo M. Velayo College of Accountancy (approx.

[16] The college had a medium-sized auditorium (Jose Rizal Conference Hall) but was transformed into three expandable multimedia rooms, several audio-visual conference rooms, a fully wired computer laboratory, a student activity center, a faculty hall, fully air-conditioned classrooms, free wi-fi access, and photocopying machines.

The executive board is composed of the seven faculty-wide elective officers (president, vice president for External Affairs, vice president for internal affairs, secretary, treasurer, auditor, and public relations officer), and the Board of Majors, colloquially referred to as "Bom", which exercises quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial powers, and is composed of the highest executive officer of each existing academic society in the faculty.

Current initiatives of the Board of Majors include the de facto Deputy Speaker and Secretary.

The contemporary ABSC can trace its roots from the Pax Romana which exercises the functions of a student forum in the university during the Martial Law period in the Philippines under the dictatorship of President Ferdinand E. Marcos.

The ABSC President, along with other presidents of college and faculty student councils create the legislative branch of the university-wide Central Student Council (which was also reinstituted by ABSC pillar Reynaldo Lopez, patterned after the organizational structure of the UST Pax Romana).

Aside from contributing to university-wide changes, the ABSC is known to lead the portion of Thomasian students who are serving as the front liners in rallies and causes, events of national essence and socio-political gatherings inside or outside the university.

Rey Datu, the former vice president of the Artlets Student Council, assumed the role of the first editor in chief of the newspaper.

1081 amidst the political climate of the 1970s, the publication transitioned to the Journal of the Humanities, focusing on essays and articles contributed by the members of the Artlet community.

Despite facing challenges such as censorship and financial constraints, it continued to provide a platform discussing governmental issues.

Thousands of copies needed disposal to avoid the risk of rebellion charges against the staff and adviser amid the martial law declaration.