President Yang Leaves Office with Wishes from NTU Colleagues and Students

On June 21, President Pan-Chyr Yang (楊泮池) completed his service as NTU President and handed over the University’s official seal to Interim President Ching-Ray Chang (張慶瑞), who also serves as Executive Vice President for Administrative Affairs. At the handover ceremony, President Yang thanked all NTU colleagues for four years of dedication to developing a wonderful campus culture, comprehensively improving the University’s quality of teaching, research, interdisciplinary cooperation, and international exchange, as well as building more spaces for teaching and research activities. President Yang and NTU colleagues had worked together on the common goal of building a better learning environment for students and preparing them for the competitive society and job market.

At the ceremony, several top officials of NTU shared their stories about President Yang. Executive Vice President for Financial Affairs Shu-Hsing Li (李書行) applauded President Yang for being capable of talking to students on equal terms, providing vision for NTU, and increasing the University’s international visibility. Vice President for Student Affairs Tsung-Fu Chen (陳聰富) noted President Yang’s great emphasis on time and efficiency when students’ welfare is concerned. In his address, Chen mentioned the two things about President Yang that impressed him the most. First, Yang stressed the importance of time, and had thus texted Chen about work even at midnight. Second, Yang believed that education is an opportunity for disadvantaged students to move upward. Also from a humble background, Yang can identify with the difficulties facing disadvantaged students. During his term, President Yang increased the number of students eligible for Hope Scholarship from 100 to 400, waiving four years of tuition fee for disadvantaged students. In addition, he extended the Food Assistance Program to help disadvantaged students cover four years of meals at NTU. Out of concern for students, Yang approved the hiring of five psychological counselors for the Office of Academic Affairs.

Previous presidents of NTU Student Association attended the ceremony as well. Vice President of NTU Student Association Cheng-Cheng Chiu (邱丞正) made an address at the ceremony, thanking President Yang for his dedication to and care for NTU.

After department, office, and association representatives spoke at the ceremony, President Yang opened his address by saying “Thank you” heartily three times to everyone present, expressing his gratitude to all NTU members who have worked with him in the past four years.