Aiming at promoting exchanges with partner institutions and enhancing the solidarity of the alumni, President Huan-Chao Keh, together with Chairperson Flora Chia-I Chang, Vice President for International Affairs Hsiao-Chuan Chen, President of Tamkang University Alumni Association Headquarters, Lawrence Lin, Dean of College of Business and College Li-Ren Yang, Executive Director of Office of Alumni Service & Resources Development Chun-Young Perng, and Chief of International and Cross-Strait Exchange Section, Office of International and Cross-Strait Affairs, Acid Chu, visited partner institutions in the U.S. from November 25 and December 9. The trip is expected to promote bilateral exchanges between TKU and partner institutions. Besides having lunch gathering with the alumni in America, President Keh also signed an agreement on academic exchanges with University of Massachusetts Lowell, the alma mater of Lawrence Lin, to establish partnership.
President Keh and other members visited California State University, Northridge (CSUN), California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), San Francisco State University (SF State), University of West Florida (UWF), and The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), and discussed about strengthening academic exchanges, duo-degree programs, etc.; they visited TKU exchange students and junior-abroad students, and cared for their study and life abroad; they also followed up the progress of Taiwan Huayu Best Program in UWF and TCNJ.
On the day when they arrived, the group was warmly welcomed by President of Southern California Tamkang University Alumni Association, Danny Wu (吳典龍), and other alumni. On the next day, they visited the businesses of alumni Tzu-Hsu Lin (林子序) and Arnold Duan (段相蜀), and attended dinner gathering with over 60 alumni from South California. At dinner, Danny Wu was awarded a certification of appreciation for his contribution, while Hui-Lan Fang (方慧蘭) was awarded the certificate of election to be the new president; on November 30, the group attended the dinner gathering with over 80 alumni from Tamkang University of North California (San Francisco). An alumnus of Department of English who lives in North Carolina, Chiu-Huang Wu (吳秋煌) specially attended the gathering and gave a Myanmar jade carved masterpiece named “Instant Success” (馬到成功) to Chairperson Chang as a present, wishing Tamkang prosperity; on December 7, the group gathered with The Alumni Association of Tamkang University in Eastern America (New York, New Jersey), where the alumni hoped to gather 50 alumni and invite the President and other members to reunite in New York next year.
After the luncheon with alumni on December 7, the President and other members visited Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, accompanied by the alumni. Director-General James K.J. Lee complimented TKU on the efforts in internationalization and overseas Chinese education. He hoped for future collaboration in promoting exchanges with foreign higher education institutions.
