Accompanying the continuously raising the awareness of environmental protection, Vice President for Administrative Affairs Flora C.I. Chang instructed all the departments concerned to speed up the process of the ISO 14001(environmental control system) certification so as to obtain the certificate within two years.

The Vice President made the instruction after hearing a report made by Prof. Hung Chin-jen, Dean of General Affairs at the meeting of the Office of General Affairs.

TKU will promote with full vigor to obtain the certification of ISO 14001, Hung said, adding that ISO14001 is an environmental management standard worked out by the International Standard Organization (ISO) with the aim of setting up an international environmental management regulations and verification rules.

Hung pointed out that it is possibly to produce foul water, polluted gas or others resulting from using the chemical materials during the course of teaching which may affect the environmental conditions. If the application is approved, it will not only upgrade the administrative efficiency but also help handle the inside-campus safety and sanitation or emergencies, Hung said.

Vice President Flora C. I. Chang instructed that TKU should carry out with its full vigor to attain the certification of ISO 14001 so as to build a good management mechanism and image although TKU had implemented the total quality management (TQM) for many years in the past.

Hung who is concurrently Director of the Center for Environmental Protection, Safety and Health, said that in order to promote the inner school’s environmental protection, he had already completed 42-hour courses at a training program for responsible officials on laborer safety and health last year and attained a Certificate Class A.

In order to familiarize with the procedures of application, Hung said that he and his staffs visited National Sun Yat Sen University in Kaohsiung whose application has already been approved to seek their opinions for TKU’s application. Under the assistance of Prof. Chien Chih-fei who is a TKU alumnus, “we have tentatively understood the procedures of application,” Hung said.

Hung said that the plan related to the attainment of certification is under way. The contents of work include the reduction of recycling resources inside the campus, the reduction of pollution, the modification of rules concerning environmental education and the protection of laborers’ safety and sanitation. He hoped that the departments concerned would cooperate with the Office of General Affairs. His office will implement the computerization of documents and information data, the recycling program, the water and electricity saving project and the anti-fire service project. At the same time, the Office of Academic Affairs will offer courses concerning on the environmental protection.

Hung believed that after carrying out the ISO14001, TKU would upgrade its management efficiency and revitalize its organizations so as to build a TKU characteristic and maintain a good image. The whole procedure of application will be completed within two years, Hung said.

However, Prof. Chen Kan-nan, Dean of the College of Sciences, expressed different opinions at the meeting. Chen said that although ISO spirit will help the management, those research-type universities in Taiwan have gradually taken a conservative attitude toward the ISO application, He takes the experiment as an example that the researchers should note down carefully the little dosage of each drop which will not only increase more work for the researchers but also more paper work which will hinder the process of the research. That is why, some universities in Taiwan have not positively applied for the certificate, Chen added.