News--Welcome to National Chiayi University

　　The 98th anniversary celebration ceremony of National Chiayi University, along with events such as alumni dinner and bazaar, took place on Nov. 4th on the Lantan campus of NCYU. During the ceremony, which opened with a performance by the NCYU Jazz Band, a number of awards were given out, including outstanding senior staff and other awards, Distinguished Alumni Award, Alumni Devotion Award, MOE (Ministry of Education) Education Donation Award, and NCYU Modern Literature Award. The ceremony was attended by a total of more than a hundred guests of honor, such as NCYU former presidents, Huang Ying-Yuan, chairman of the NCYU National Alumni Association, and the 22 distinguished alumni selected just this year. There was also the alumni dinner where approximately 300 tables were set up to seat the participating alumni.

　　NCYU Jazz Band is honored to have Lucy Lin, a new-generation jazz saxophonist, as advisor of the band. Lin has just returned to Taiwan after further studies at New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz music. She not only gives performances on a regular basis but performs at “Taichung Jazz Music Festival” and “Chiayi City International Band Festival” with many other Jazz masters and groups. For today’s performance, they specially invited Lawrence Nickolai Javier, who graduated from Michigan State University, United States, and Royal Conservatoire The Hague, to serve as conductor. Their vibrant performance treated all the honorary guests to a spectacular auditory feast.

　　In his speech, NCYU President Chiou Yi-Yuan mentioned this was the last anniversary celebration ceremony hosted by him since he is going to retire next February. He has been serving as teacher at NCYU for 40 years since he first taught at the then National Chiayi Institute of Agriculture, NCYIA, at the age of 26. In the course of four decades, he has always been filled with gratitude to the university for many things. In his last six years at NCYU, for example, he was privileged to serve as President. He was especially thankful to the prospective planning and leadership of the former presidents, collaborative efforts of all the teachers and students, unreserved support of the alumni, as well as guidance and assistance from the greater society, without which NCYU would not have become a paradigm university formed from the amalgamation of several colleges at home.

　　President Chiou said for the past six years, the administrative team has been fully utilizing local resources, working with value-added, creative marketing, international tourism, and other industries, seeking diverse academic-industrial cooperation, with the ultimate goal of finding the niche for co-existence and co-prosperity. Despite severe challenges facing higher education, all the departments of NCYU enjoyed a full recruitment of students from the assigned subject test for university admission this year, the second year in a row since last year. According to “the 2017 Taiwan University ranking,” a statistical report by the local media Global Views Monthly, NCYU ranks 29th as a comprehensive university and is the only one university that has shown improvement on the five indicators including prestige, academic achievement, teaching quality, internationalization, continuing education and income from academic-industrial cooperation among the 102 public and private universities across Taiwan that had joined the academic affairs evaluation. A ranking by DailyView that evaluated online comments from July of 2016 to June of 2017, NCYU ranked 9th among the higher education institutions in Taiwan; NCYU placed 2nd in an online evaluation of influence in the category of beautiful campus conducted from February to July of 2017. These results were not achieved overnight but were the culmination of dedication and hard work of all the teachers and students over a long course of time. In the days to come, he hoped the authorities concerned, leaders in the education field, and alumni would continue their support and advisory role to NCYU.

　　According to the university, “KANO Bailbox” was established on the Lantan campus of NCYU by Chiayi Post Office to promote the Kano baseball spirit and local tourism. An unveiling ceremony was held following the anniversary celebration ceremony. The “bailbox” featured graphic design by Chen Shan-Shan, who graduated from the Department of Visual Arts, NCYU. With the lovely character of a Kano baseball player as the theme, she strived to convey the meanings of pitching (creating opportunities) and sliding into base (capturing the chances). It not merely serves the function of mailing letters but symbolizes the undaunted, unyielding determination showcased by NCYU teachers and students.