Does SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) invade Tamkang University (TKU) Campuses? No case of the diseases has yet been reported after the Personnel Office (PO) and Office of Students Affairs (OSA) made the inquiry concerned. TKU President Dr. Chang Horng-jinh called on all faculty and students to temporarily halt their visits to Mainland China, Hong Kong and Vietnam where SARS is widely spreading, and to take a preventive measure against the epidemic.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) noticed with Tai-Ti-Tze No. 0920045993 on March 28 and Tai-Kao-Shih-Tze No. 0920047174 on April 1, respectively, to all levels of schools around the nation with the hope to prevent SARS from spreading in educational institutes. Education Minister Huang Jung-tsun even revealed publicly that all the classes would be halted if two students were infected with SARS in a school.

TKU has also paid attention to SARS. TKU President informed the faculty and staff members as well as students again that the school authorities would prohibit them to enter the campuses if they returned from a trip to Mainland China, Hong Kong, Canada, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. Teachers should inform the Office of Academic Affairs (OAA) to halt the class and also make up the class when SARS is over. Staff members and janitors will convert the isolation days to their annual holidays. Students should automatically ask for leave to OSA.

All the faculty and staff members as well as students have been highly cooperative with school authorities. Shih Kuo-chen, Chair, Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, came back from Mainland China on April 1. He took automatically a 10-day leave to isolate himself from others. Now he canceled his holidays on April 10 to assume his duties. A teacher of Department of Chinese suspended the class immediately after receiving a notice from an assistant although he has already taught the class for half-an-hour because the teacher has just returned from Mainland China. A teacher of Department of Electrical Engineering has also suspended his class and stayed home for seven days because he returned from a visit to Mainland China. Two staff members have also isolated themselves for a week because their family members visited Mainland China.

According to PO, a total of 12 faculty and staff members were initially reported. Fortunately, no SARS case was found.

Tsao Dian-ya, Chief of Guidance Section, OSA, said that there hasn’t yet found any students asking for a leave due to SARS infection. Chang Yu-min, Chief of Sanitation and Health Care Section, OSA, called on all the faculty, staff members and students to keep calm and not to be in a panic. If your temperature is over 38 degrees and you have a symptom of headache, muscle ache, respiratory problem, you should go to hospital immediately.