【Shi-qing Huang, Tamsui Campus Report】On Dec. 1 the Office of Student Affairs held the “2015-16 United University 4th and 5th year Graduate Student Representative Discussion,” in the Chueh-sheng International Conference Hall. Lanyang Campus attended the meeting via video conference. In attendance was Vice President of Administration, Yi-jen Hu, Vice President of International Affairs, Wan-chin Tai, and related academic figures and administrators, totalling to 130 participants. Firstly, Yi-jen Hu, presented awards for excellent youth of the 2015-16 year. He expressed in his address, “From seeing the current situation between the administration and students, it’s apparent that there is a heavy emphasis of student news, study environment and active modifications. It’s my hope that this discussion will lend opportunity to even more improvements.”

During the conference, 11 student representatives presented their inquiries and suggestions gathered from the student body. The requests included adding more asian languages for study, designing of short-term courses, publication of multi-departmental books and age requirements for academic positions. Dean of the College of Foreign Languages and Literature, Hsiao-chuan Chen, responded, “The Asian languages provided already include Indian and Vietnamese, but currently the number of students is restricted and we can look into opening more short-term courses.” Director of the Tamkang University Press, Sinn-cheng Lin, expressed, “We’ve currently got published material that contains six different languages of different departments. In the future we plan to continue moving in this direction. Yi-jen Hu, addressed the age hiring policy, “As of now we are operating according to regulations, but the future is discussing changes in these rules. Just as the policy states retirement is offered at the age of 70, yet we generally allow retirement at 65.”