Tamkang e-Times

A Brief Introduction of the Tamkang Times

History

The Tamkang Times (hereafter called TKT), originally named "The Tamkang English College Weekly", was first established in 1953. Dr Clement C.P. Chang, then the President of the Tamkang English College, was the Director, while Mr. Chen Wei-lung was serving as the publisher of the Weekly. A few name changes took place afterwards: first, it was named "The Tamkang Weekly Forum", then "The Tamkang Weekly" before it was named "The Tamkang Times" in 1989 up till now.
The Tamkang Engilsh College Weekly 1953 ~ 1957
Tamkang College Echo 1953 ~ 1979
The Tamkang Weekly Forum 1957 ~ 1959
The Tamkang Weekly 1959 ~ 1989
The Tamkang Times 1989 ~

Objectives

The newspaper published every Monday is aimed at serving faculty, staff and students of TKU as well. It includes such goals: to enhance coverage of campus activities report; to help cement the relationship between faculty, staff (including blue-collared workers) and students; to promote interchange/interrelationship between TKU vs students' parents and TKU vs alumni/ae; to elevate the level of academic standard and to advocate the effervescence of the unique Tamkang culture.

To enhance coverage of campus activities report:
From anniversary to commencement, from academic exchange to recreations within the campus and student club activities---these are all newsworthy stories of TKT.
In terms of style, a lively, vivid yet unalloyed and unbiased reportage has always been the goal that this newspaper is striving for in many years.
To help cement the relationship between faculty, staff (including blue-collared workers) and students:
Despite its role of an official organ, TKT is a bridge spanning over the faculty, staff and students, so that through the occasion of a weekly paper, the conglomerate of a big TKU family can be realized.
To promote interchange/interrelationship between TKU vs students' parents and TKU vs alumni/ae:
TKT deems it her primary duty to report the news of TKU alumni/ae, to share their remarkable achievements with Tamkangians. Also, those who are graduates of the university can obtain information thru either "gratis" or subscription to the paper. Given the recent trend in most universities to direct attention to alumni/ae association, TKT's role becomes even more pivotal today than before.
TKT also emphasizes the inter-communication with TKU students' parents. A "TKU Freshmen Special Issue" will be mailed to freshmen and their parents before the orientation week to acquaint them with the university. They are also encouraged to subscribe to this paper to keep them updated to the happenings of their children's school.
To elevate the level of academic standard:
Teaching, research and service have always been the major concerns of Tamkang University. When innovation and revision have become a byword of today's universities, nothing is more important than to elevate the academic standard of our university. To help accomplish this goal, TKT has engineered such columns as "To Rap with the Professsors", "A Visit to the Room of a Meritorious Professor", etc., so as to share their fruits of research with the general reading public of the paper.
To advocate the effervescence of the unique Tamkang culture:
As globalization, information-oriented and future-oriented education are the three objectives of TKU, it has also become the cultural tradition to which the university adheres. The effervescence of Tamkang culture is manifested in the amenities of the TKU campus, the liberal, democratic academic atmosphere and a lively and dynamic student life style. To uphold and perpetuate such a cultural milieu is the ultimate goal of TKT.

Personnel

Pres. Flora C.I. Chang of TKU is the publisher of the paper. A committee consisting of 6 to 18 members are chosen by the president to supervise decision making and related matters. As this is an ad hoc committee, members may come from faculty staff, students, alumni/ae, etc.

On August 2004, Dr. Po-yuan Kuo, Vice President for Administrative Affairs, TKU, has become the Chairperson of TKT, with Lecturer Yu-pei Ma, of Department of Mass Communication, serving as Executive Secretary and Director & Editor-in-chief of the paper. The staff include one Assistant Director, one Managing-editor, and three editors.

Circulation

The TKT is scheduled to be published regularly on every Monday with 30,000 copies. Faculty and students can get a free copy from the special TKT deposit box on the first floor of each college building. In the meantime with post haste, it will be delivered to various offices in Tamsui, Taipei and Lanyang campuses. It is also accessible to people outside TKU, because it is made available free of charge to various major media throughout the island and higher-education facilities. Also, many TKU students' parents are subscribing to this paper. So, every Tamkangian knows about the paper and reads it.

Layout

The Front Page:

It includes major news happenings in the university, policy reports. It is a "stapple food" for every Tamkangian.

The Inset Page:

The editoral, special topics and special interviews, including "in-depth" reports to complement news highlights, interviews of alumni/ae, faculty and students; readers' letters (mail-box) and publicity announcements from various offices/sections. For instance, in order to accommodate the Three-Objectives and the Fourth-Wave, TKT had implemented a series of reports on special topics; "in-depth" reports on some conceptual ideas and developments of TKU, etc. In short, it is a page that serves many purposes.

The Literary Supplement

(Ying Yuan): It accentuates a literary style unique in Tamkang tradition. In addition to literary works, it also carries special columns as "News Heard from the Streets", "Discovering the Beauty of Tamkang Campus", "Quotable Quotes from Famous People" and "Jobs Available at Industries/Enterprises", etc. Also, two tidbit capsule columns called "Echoes from the Sea of Academia" and "Alumni/ae News" offer an added dimension to the variety of the Literary Supplement.

The Back Page:

Misc. News. It highlights student news stories, reports covering club activities and news bulletin. Because this page focuses on reporting the colorful life style of student activities, it becomes the most favored "piece of pie" of student readers.

The Procedures of TKT are arranged as follows:

Monday	Meetings for discussion of issues relating to the general affairs and editing.
Tuesday	Meetings for discussion of interviews done by correspondents.
Wednesday	Deadline for Inset Page stories (p.2 & p.3)
Wednesday	First proof-reading on Inset Page (p.2 & p.3) stories; revision of Front Page (p.l) stories and Back Page (p.4) final version stories.
Thursday	First proof-reading of Front Page and Back Page stories. In the afternoon, stories of p.1 and p.4 ready to be set for printing.
Friday	Lay out the design of stories and proof-reading; check the galley-proofs; dispatch the disk to outside printer for printing in the evening.
Monday	Publication. Papers ready for distribution.

State-of-the-art technique for editing/printing/publication:

As of 1996, TKT has utilized the Chi-Cheng Computer System for compiling and editing, which is now being enforced by three editors. But the post-editing work such as transmission into disks and printing are relegated to outside printers for completion of the work.

TKT on the Web site

TKT has already set up its Homepage on the globe Web site, and has occupied a cyberspace in versions of both Chinese and English of the paper. From hereon, a person can locate TKT in his/her PC, as long as he/she does a little surfing, regardless of geographical distance.

As of 2000 TKT has formally issued digital news Chinese version. A year later in 2001 TKT finally issued its digital news in English version named as "Tamkang e-Times" to serve the general reading public of the paper.

Student correspondents and their work

The TKT is proud to own a pool of student correspondents from different departments and colleges. Thanks to their vitality and enthusiasm, readers of this weekly newspaper constantly receive information they need to know from their interesting reports and sometimes, conversely, they themselves become providers of the news.

Recruitment

The correspondents of TKT are recruited on irregular time basis. Not necessarily students from Department of Mass Communication will catch the eye of TKT. The recruitment is open to all candidates, irrespective of their majors. After a general examination and an intense training program, those who have passed both programs will get the job.

Review on interviews

The review on interviews is held on weekly basis. Correspondents discuss their interview strategy and share their information with each other. Sometimes they may adjust their work "overflow"; often they would exchange their views and address the flaws they made last time.

Birthday parties and farewell parties

Every month or every other month, as the case may be, a birthday party will be held for correspondents whose birthdays occur in that month; sometimes their families will also be invited. A farewell party in June is often held to send off graduating correspondents from different departments and colleges.

Interim Education Training program

In every semester, one or two veteran journalists will be invited to give a lecture on their personal experience in journalism to provide more on-the-job knowledge---sometimes impetus---to TKT greenhorn reporters.

Winter/Summer Vacation Training program

A two-day training program will be set aside for TKT student correspondents to attend. Courses include newpaper writing, interview experience, special topics planning, personal interview, photography, etc TKT believes that the more the abilities of correspondents are "plugged in", the more advanced will be the level of standard oi the paper.

Rewarding and punitive action

Every semester a few reporters whose performance is exceptionally good will be selected for commendation; an oral reprimand, however, will be levelled on those whose performance is less than satisfactory; hopefully this will bring them around in the future.