National Taiwan University (NTU) students yesterday voiced their opposition to a plan by the school’s College of Liberal Arts to build a 23-story tower to house five departments.
Long plagued by insufficient space, the college — which has 12 academic departments, an audio-visual education center and a language center — plans to tear down two three-story buildings built in the 1960s near the university’s main entrance and erect a 23-story “Humanities Tower” on the site to house the history, anthropology, Chinese, Japanese, and philosophy departments.
However, the plan has met with objections from some students.
“We’re not opposed to building the Humanities Tower, but we’re opposed to erecting a gigantic 23-story tower right next to the school’s main entrance,” said Lin Wan-shu (林宛樞), president of the College of Liberal Arts Student Association.
“The tower will not fit in with the backdrop and will be out of historical context,” Lin said.
Most buildings around the planned construction site date from 1928 when the school was founded by the Japanese colonial government as Taihoku Imperial University.
“The school should first try to explore the use of existing unused spaces on campus,” she said. “We also regret that the college did not involve students in the decision-making process.”
Student Association Welfare Department director Juan Chun-ta (阮俊達) said unequal distribution of space and buildings among colleges and departments had long been a problem.
“While the College of Liberal Arts suffers a lack of space, some departments occupy two or more buildings,” Juan said. “So we think that the university should carry out a thorough review to see if all buildings and areas on campus are being efficiently used.”
While admitting that some of the problems that the college faces have to do with unequal allocation of resources, college dean Yeh Kuo-liang (葉國良) said in a written statement that the constuction of the Humanities Tower would improve the college’s competitiveness and quality of education.
However, Yeh did not address specific questions that students raised.
He was unavailable for comment at press time.
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