More than 600 Tamkang University alumni joined a reunion party held at the Student Activity Center on March 13 to celebrate the upcoming 60th anniversary of the university in a cold and raining spring day. Dr. Clement C.P. Chang, founder of the TKU, noted that a university’s graduates play an important part in deciding whether a school is successful or not. He wished TKU alumni can visit their alma mater more often to give speeches or hold events to pass down their experience in different fields. He also expected all the alumni associations to invite graduates to come home on the upcoming anniversary.

TKU President Dr. Flora C. I. Chang said that the unceasingly rain is another typical Tamkang impression for all TKU graduates. “One can relive their days in Tamsui under the rain and to see the azalea, cherry blossoms of the campus,” she noted. As for the upcoming anniversary, President Chang said all the alumni can provide some old photos about the school. “But most importantly, don’t forget to come home then,” she said.

All the participants of the reunion party shared dessert and tea while a dance troupe from nearby Deng Kong Elementary School performed dances. The TKU Alumni Chorus also sang songs during the event. The highlight of the event was a lottery draw in which the top prize, a 42 inches BenQ LCD Monitor, went to Chang Pei-chen, a graduate of the Department of Economics. Chang expressed her excitement about the unexpected prize. Peng Chih-hung, another graduate of the Department of Cooperative Economics (now Department of Economics), said that this is his first time to join the reunion party at Spring time for two decades. He said it feels good to meet with many old schoolmates, however, he couldn’t recognize many of them because it has been so many years. He hoped the organizer of the event can prepare name tags in the event next time to make it more convenient for alumni to re-familiar with each other.

Meanwhile, aside from the reunion event held at the Student Activity Center, many departments also held its own parties to welcome homecoming TKU graduates. The Department of Management Sciences and Decision Making & the Graduate Institute of Management Sciences held a bowling and the game of bridge contest which also featured lottery drawing. The Department of History’s reunion party was joined by Jen Hong, vice minister of Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission and another 30 graduates. The Department of Information and Library Science held a hiking event, inviting alumni to walk from TKU side entrance to place in the mountain called source water land, before the group move to the “Red Bricks House” restaurant for a tea session. The Department of Information Communication took the rare opportunity to report the latest development of its department and re-elect the president of its alumni association.

Graduate Institute of European Studies and the committee members in preparation of founding an alumni association for the institute held a seminar at Chueh-sheng International Conference Hall. The seminar was held both on sharing each others’ experience in Taiwan-European exchanges and on the founding of an alumni association.

Department of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering has invited nearly 100 alumni to join an alumni association party at Tamsui’s Ya-Dear Restaurant. The alumni association president Ni Shih-piao, who doubled as director of Taipei City’s Department of environmental Protection, joined the party. Ni also gave awards to commemorate 11 famous alumni of the department, including Dr. Li Chi-wang, the incumbent chair of the department.

English Department held a home-coming tea party for alumni at the B1 of the Foreign Language Building. Aside from giving away scholarship to its students, Japanese Department held an outstanding alumni award giving ceremony to honor famous graduates. The award goes to a professor of the Department Dr. Sun Yin-hua and Dr. Chang King-tu, chair of the Department of Applied Japanese under the National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology. ( ~Yeh Yun-kai )