Tamkang University, together with another two universities in the North Coast, Aletheia University and St. John’s University jointly signed a deal to form a “North Coast Sports Alliance” on March 4 in the aim to promote cross-university cooperation to boost physical education of the three universities and Tamsui area as a whole. The representatives of three universities, who joined the signing ceremony, are Hsiao Shu-fen, Director of the TKU Office of Physical Education, Chen Chien-hong, Dean of Office of Student Affairs, St. John’s University, and Cheng Chun-Chieh, Director of Office of Physical Education, Aletheia University.

“The alliance is just like a large size friendship competition union,” said Hsiao, adding that the alliance will help to facilitate the holding of friendship games between the three universities in the future and elevate the sports standard of these schools. TKU students’s passion for the school will get stronger with more and more sports events, she noted. Hsiao added that the sports resources of the three universities are shared and enjoyed by not just their students but also residents of the Tamsui area.

Both Chen and Cheng gave very high regards to TKU’s sports-related facilities after they personally visited TKU. Cheng said he was deeply impressed with TKU’s weight training room and he envied the abundant physical education resources and facilities of the university. Chen noted that he wished to learn from Tamkang University’s basketball team, which is highly-praised in the college basketball field. Hsiao said that it is the age of Ocean Education in the future and the North Coast is rich in resources of all kinds of marine sports. She added that her school has abundant resources among the three universities in the alliance. Cheng of the Aletheia University noted that his university has department on sports management, hence can provide professional guidance to the schools of the alliance such as offering student referees and holding seminars.

Chen Yi-cheng, section chief of Physical Education Activities Section, Office of Physical Education, said that following the establishment of tri-university alliance, the upcoming TKU Aquatic Meet will include students from the three universities to join the competition. The move is expected to further boost the competitiveness of university’s swimming team, said Chen. Hsiao also noted that the North Coast Sports Alliance is part of a celebration project of the TKU 60 Anniversary. If the alliance works well, then it will continue to operate years after years, Hsiao added. Huang Chih-ming, a senior in the Department of Statistics, and leader of TKU Men’s Basketball Team that participated in the collegiate friendship game last year, said that the alliance will also help his team to get better. ( ~Yeh Yun-kai )