Soochow University - Annual Yearbook (Taipei, Taiwan)

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y FOREWORD By The President A Each year there will be several classes graduated from Soochow University. and each year the graduating classses will issue an Annual. Like the preceding ones, this Annual contains, among other things, a large number of pictures, including ex-presidents of the university, faculty and staff members, members of the graduating classes, and various school activities. ' Some day, as some one of the 1963 graduates opens this book, he might point to a certain picture and say, This was our beloved professorg he was lenient in gradingg I made an A in his class. Pointing to another, he might complain as well, This old man was very harshg he flunked me. While turning the pages, if an athlete, he might also talk about the ball team or teams 'he played on. Then he begins to miss the school life he. once lived and becomes nostalgic, . , . The classes of 1963 are graduating at the threshold of a time the university is about ready for a big jtunp in its development. In the summer of 1962, the Division of World Missions of the Methodist Church sent a Survey Team of three educators -- Dr. John O. Gross, Dr. Beauson Tseng and Dr. Y. K. Chu -- to Taiwan to study the needs of Soochow University. The findings in its report led to an agreement later entered into between the Division of World Missions of the Methodist Church and the Board of Trustees of Soochow University, ,by which a large appropriation of money is going, to be made by the former for .upgrading the standards of the university for a probational period of two years, 1963-1965. In the report there also appeared a brief comment on the educational mission of Soochow. The Survey Team cited for Soochow's benefit the twelve principles given to Silliman University, which are all shared by Christian institutions of higher education. One of the principles says, A Christian university must help guide the fundamental changes in culture and in social structure on which the salvation of society depends, by providing Christian leadership which will understand the needs and hopes of the people and direct them wisely.

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And another, If a Christian university is to live up to its reputation, justify confidence built on past accomplishments, and keep pace with rapidly developing government universities, it must emphasize quality rather than quantity, Evangelical higher education should attempt to compete only at a high level, where superiority counts. These and the other ten principles - which do not appear here - have helped bring to light in an analytical form the mission Soochovv is charged with and the kind of leadership it expects its students to undertake after graduation. Thus, whether Christians or non-Christians, the sons and daughters of Soochow Universityg who often' pride themselves on its past achievements and exalted reputtion, must be aware of what is expected of them and endeavour to uphold that exalted reputation, and, if possible, to lift it even to a higher plane that Soochowemay' be honored for their accomplishments. As society judges a school mainly by thebdeeds of its graduates, so they must not eschew the responsibility. A The 1963 'classes will soon be graduated. I want to congratulate them for their successful completion of the courses required of them by Scochow University for graduation. ' P By applying themselves industriously to their academic work and, at the same time, cooperating closely with the school administration to bring about a fine college spirit and intellectual climate, the 1963 classes have so shared in the effort to establish Soochow in Taiwan as a highly esteemed institution of higher learning. For all this I want further to thank them and wish them happiness and success in all the years to' come. ' 4 T