Last Wednesday (May 15) at 10:30 an unusual thing happened on the usually tranquil TKU campus as faculties and students witnessed two reigning presidents beaming with broad grins amidst cheers and applause of the welcoming crowds.

They were no other than His Excellency Dr. Note, President of the Republic of Marshall Islands and Pres. Chen Shui-bian (A Bian) of ROC (Taiwan).

The two presidents were cordially greeted by Dr. Clement C.P. Chang, Founder of TKU at the entrance doorway of Chueh Sheng Memorial Hall.

In their whirlwind visit to TKU, the two presidents first watched a short film, literally an introduction of our university. In the featured film dealing with student life in general at Tamkang U., there was inserted a footage showing Pres. Chen’s visit at TKU last year for her 50th anniversary. When seeing his image in the film, Pres. Chen was pleased as punch.

Then they listened to a briefing by our Founder, Dr. Clement C.P. Chang. TKU is the first university created by a native Lander who we would call a Taiwanese today. Ever since her inception she has been harboring triple objectives as her ultimate mission: globalization, future-oriented education and information-oriented education. For accomplishing the goal of globalization, TKU had embarked upon tying friendly ties with sister universities all over the world: now we have had 66 such schools that have knotted a tie with us. That’s why there are by and large 200 students each year dispatched by us to study in overseas schools to pursue research and studies.

With the realization of these lofty goals, Tamkang graduates every year can find satisfactory placement after their commencement and be of use or service to the society that groomed them.

The visiting president from the Republic of the Marshall Islands admitted modestly that his whole country has a total of less than 6 thousand computers, which he calculated as the sum total of TKU. He was overwhelmed by what he saw.

Following the briefing, the two visiting presidents were seated at the Fountain Plaza in front of Carrie Chang Fine Arts Center to attend an open- air concert. “Evening Air in Tamsui”, a song played by TKU Chinese Music Club was the first number the students played; then two more songs by TKU Chorus Club: “Wandering to Tamsui” and “Thinking of you in the Rain”. They were very well received by the two presidents, especially by Pres. A Bian who kept calling “Bravo! Bravo!” to the student performers.

Then they visited the famous TKU Maritime Museum. Also from an island country, Pres. Note was impressed by the variegated types of ship models on display there and kept touting the beautiful landscape of TKU campus.

Pres. A Bian is invariably a crowd pleaser. Wherever he went, the crowd was following him. As A Bian knew fully his charisma, he stopped and shook hands with each and every one who was trailing behind; this act drew huge screams from the students. As they say, our present president is a youth charmer---indeed he is!