Soochow University - Annual Yearbook (Taipei, Taiwan)

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Hankow Street property was retained 'temporarily for the exclusive use of the evening classes in law. - , , The new academic- buildin.g is a large three-storied structure of reinforced concrete, containing sixteen large classrooms, six small classrooms, and twelve rooms for adzcninistrative and business offices. In front of this building andon the 'lower main level portion of the valley are the athletic grounds: a large soccer field, volley ball court, baseball diamond, and eight tennis courts. A second building, the student center, was completed in 1959. financed entirely by -funds contributed by alumni and friends and Well-wishers ing Taiwan, HongiKong, and other centers of Chinese population. the last two years three other buildings have appeared on the campus: a men's dormitory of 36 rooms and a womenfs donnitory of 40 rooms, with a -combined capacity for 380 studentsg and a small though very commodious structure known as Kwang Tao Ting to be used as a center for religious activities. Attached to the west end of this building is the new clinic room, which is staffed by the Water of Life,Clinic of the Taipei Methodist Church. During the stunmer of 1961, residences were constructed for the president of the university, pluslan initial six families among the faculty and administrative staff. At present an architect is working on plans for a new building which will be a memorial to the late Bishop Ralph A. Ward whose latter years were devoted so tirelessly and with such vision and faithfor the transplanted university which was evolving so hopefully here in its new island home. This building, to be called, very probably, Ward Hall, will contain as the main unit, a beautiful chapel with a seating, capacity of about 450 to ,500 persons, and as the secondary unit, about ten additional rooms for library purposes. It will be located on the eas side of the campus in direct line with the front gate, so that it can greet all teachers and students and visitorswith the simple beauty of its architecture and the Christian symbols of the purposes of the university. The development program for the future will make provision for additional buildings appropriate to the needs of a growing instiution. Soochow University has been fortunate in obtaining the services of leading scholars to teach all branches of Chinese and comparative law, and such other subjects as economics, political science, accounting, Chinese language and literature, and foreign language and literature. ' Also in the summer of 1961, a major change in the operation of the university was effected by the removal of the Law Department from Hankow Street, the original location in Taipei, to the suburban campus in Shih Lin, thus concentrating all administrative and academic work in one place. The most noticeable ,outward

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Several years earlier,' Soochow University came into the group that received supplementary promotional benefits from the United Board for Christian Colleges in China, known as the UBCCC. This organization assumed certain responsibilities for promoting the welfare of Sooohow along with the twelve other Christian colleges and universities on the mainland. QThe board is now ,known as the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia. Renewed affiliations with Soochow, in' an- associated relationship, will provide continuity with the mainland past.J ' The Communist rebellion of 1949 brought a temlzorary end to .Soochow in all i'ts'departmen'ts, as it did to all other Christian institutions in mainland China, except those -operated by local congregations. The Soochow campus in Soochow is now occupied by the South Kiangsu College of Education . V But Soochow had not come to an end. In 1951 Soochow was reactivated in Taipei, the capital of the Republic of China, and opened its doors in rented quarters in the mid-town business section at No. 15 Hankow Street. Section l. It became an unregistered school known as the Soochow University school. In 1954 this school was recognized as the Soochow University Law College, thanks to the active interest of many alumni lawyers in Taipei and other Taiwan cities who had fled the mainland and who were resuming their practice and their old lives ofrusefulness and influence. A constitution was drawn up for Soochow Universiw and submitted by the Board of Trustees to the Ministry of Educatiou. This constitution was approved by the ministry. In 1956, largely through the influence and hard work of the late Methodist Bishop Ralph A. Ward, the Board of Missions of the Methodist Church in New York, N. Y., U. S. A., voted an arrangement whereby.Methodist funds -could be contributed' to the work of Soochow University. The J board also appropriated US315,000.00 which was used to help purchase a new campus north of Taipei. Since the old days in Soochow and Shanghai, there has been a merger of three principal 'Methodist bodies in the 'United 'States so that there is no longer a Methodist Episcopal-Church,'South. That body has been merged with the others into 'the new Methodist Church and it is this latter body Whose mission .board has now expressed a renewed interest in Soochow University. In 1957 the university acquired a' new 3745 acre campus in Shih Lin, in Wai Shuang Hsi, a beautiful valley that has since been designated for development into 'a cultural center for the Taipei area. In the fall of 1958 the institution was able to transfer all day classes to the new campus, using the first building, the academic building, for both administrative . and .instructional purposes. The

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adjustmentto 'this newly crowded -condition andtshortage of classroom space-was the moving of the Library to the Student Center to share the auditorium, -thus vacating the teaching space previously needed for housing the book collection. The resultant' temporary quarters are- ccirnicdious, and can he used until a new library building can be constructed. - ' ' In laying plans for the future of the institution, the Board of -Trustees of the University, and the Board of Missions of the'-Methodist Church in New York, jointly conducted a survey of the university in its' entirety as a- basis for an evaluation- of the resourcesof the institution in relation to the scope and direction of . its development. 'The ' Survey Team was made up' of three distinguished educators, two from the United States - a Chinese professor, and an American educational administrator - and one Chinese professor from Taiwan. A large part of the month of July, 1962, was spent on the campus for an intimate look at the school with its various function.s, and with its legitimate needs. Out of this came a Survey Report addressed to the two Boards, with analyses and recommendations. This was 'followed in turn by a final review in November 1962 by the University Boardwith the visiting Bishop and Mission secretary. This combined group has set up 1 a new plan, wlth new arrangements for financial cooperation and academic expansion, looking toward the achievement of full-fledged university status, as defined by the Ministry of Education. The Soochow University alumni have extended their association .by organizing local' clubs of alumni in various cities in Taiwan, as 'there are many hundreds of graduates from mainland days here now in Taiwan. During the winter of 1961 and the spring' of 1952, the alumni conducted' an active financial campaign, which they hope may be the beginning of a Living Endowment Roll Call each year. All alumni are invited to answer the roll call by contributing something to the annual budget of the university. In Hong Kong, later in the year, Dry Stone conducted a similar round-up of alumni, and secured funds enough to complete the student center. The original architectural plans call for two long hall-like additions full length oneach side of the building, the lower sections of which will provide added space for the dining hall and the upper sections Cthesecond storiesl of' 'which will provide much needed expansion of the auditorium, presently used for the library. ' ' ' ' ' On June 16, 1960, the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the University on the home campus in Soochow was duly commemorated in a special convocation held in the new auditorium on the 'campus in Wai Shuang Hsi. This was attended not only by students and local friends, and by large numbers of . alumni