Through an internal recommendation system, the candidates for the 8th TKU’s president were finalized last Friday (June 11). They are Hsu Ding-ji, the Dean of the College of Technology, Flora Chang, the Vice President of Administrative Affairs, Chen Gan-nan, the Dean of the College of Science and Gao Bo-yuan, the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts in the order according to the votes of recommendation they have received from all the faculty members and staff.

The Election Committee will shorten the list to 2 to 3 candidates on June 16 and present the names to the general meeting of the Board of Trustees held on June 23 when the members of trustees will cast their vote on one candidate. Once that is decided, the Ministry of the Education will be informed and approve of candidate who will be inaugurated on August 1. Following this approval, an election will be held at the Board of Trustees for reorganization as the term for the 8th trustee members is about to be terminated and with the passing away of one of its members, the late Lin Kun-zhong, nine new members are expected to be elected this time.

All four candidates are experienced administrators and academics, who have fulfilled the criteria set out for the president, which means “Ph.D. holder, qualification of professorship or professorship-equivalent research work, and four years of educational administrative work”. The election committee will examine the qualification of each candidate very carefully and interview them regarding their possibility of accepting the job. Based on these results, the committee will narrow the list to 2 to 3 candidates from whom, the president will be elected in turn by the Board of Trustees.

The first candidate on the list is the current Dean of the College of Technology, Hsu Ding-ji. He is a TKU alumna who graduated from the Irrigation Engineering Department (known as the current Water Resources and Environmental Engineering Department) and received his Ph.D. in Engineering from the Tohoku University, Japan. His specialization includes the water and wastewater microbiology and design of wastewater management. He is an experienced administrator with 19 years as his track record, which includes the Director of the Educational Development Center, Dean of the Academic Affairs, Director of the Office of Research and Development and the Chair as well as the Dean of the Department/College of Engineering. He has his unique view on how to develop TKU’s academic achievement in three ways: Establishing a niche for the university, customer-oriented quality management and favorable investment on key research areas. In terms of day-to-day running of the university, he beliefs are firmly in line with those that have been espoused by the Founder, Dr. Clement C.P. Chang, which are dedicated, responsible and effective working ethic and to execute all work honestly and fairly.

The second candidate, Flora C.I. Chang, the Vice President of Administrative Affairs, and has a Ph.D. in Education from Stanford University, USA. She also has two Master degrees in Economics and Educational Administration from the State University of San Francisco and Stanford respectively. She has been responsible for developing the application of TQM (Total Quality Management) in education and its effectiveness at TKU since she became the Vice President in 1986. It is for this expertise and her contribution in promoting the quality management, the staff and faculty (they listed down 9 reasons) voted her to be an ideal candidate for the presidency. They believe that her rich experience in administration and the achievement of winning the certification of the ISO 14001 Environment Management System in recent years demonstrate her leadership. Furthermore, her countless overseas visits to foreign higher education institutes have not only built bridges but also helped in improving TKU’s overall international standing. She is also a champion in harboring gender equality and open communication—a feature that has long been associated with a female manager. Her feminine but firm management style is evident everywhere and respected by all her staff. Her goal is to promote TKU to be one of the world first-class comprehensive universities by improving its competitiveness, teaching quality, research, and services, which in turn should create an integrated environment of knowledge and information system.

The third candidate, Chen Gan-nan, the Dean of the College of Science (COS), is a graduate from TKU’s Chemistry Department. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois, Chicago and was a Post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Georgia. He has served TKU since 1980 in various posts, which include the Chair of the Chemistry Department and his current position as the Dean of COS. Ever since he became the Dean in 1999, he has dedicated his efforts in academic research. His involvement in Nanotechnology made him the Director of the Nanotechnology Research Center of TKU last year. He has already turned the center into a hotbed of avant garde research center over a very short period of time. His panache for research has certainly lends him the conviction that TKU should aim at becoming a truly research-oriented university as well as strengthening teaching and academic performance to gain recognition by the public and peers as an outstanding institute.

The fourth candidate, Gao Bo-yuan, the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Chinese Culture University, Taiwan and has been teaching at the Chinese Department of TKU since 1987. During this time, he has been the Chair of the department, the Director of the Center for China Studies and among other various administrative works. His ideal for TKU is to implement all the projects that facilitate the unified and harmonious execution of all four campuses. In terms of academic development, he wishes to follow the principle of TKU’s triple objectives (namely Globalization, Information-oriented Education and Future-oriented education) and as for the management of the university, he will carry out the spirit of the Total Quality Management.

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