Several universities had graduation ceremonies yesterday with political figures and leading businesspeople invited to address graduates and share their words of wisdom with the graduating classes.
Former premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄), who graduated from National Taiwan University (NTU) in 1965, yesterday attended the university’s commencement ceremony and encouraged new graduates to be open to innovation and new ventures.
He drew an analogy between coconut trees — the most well--recognized symbol of the university, whose celebrated Coconut Grove Boulevard (椰林大道) stands in front of the campus — and students of the high-ranking university.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
“Walking through the front gate of NTU, what comes directly into view is the university road lined with coconut trees. However, the main characteristic of these trees is that they are preoccupied with upwards growth and reluctant to give umbrage,” he said.
In contrast, what epitomizes National Cheng Kung University in Greater Tainan is the many old banyan trees that are rooted in the ground, with luxuriant foliage that creates shade for the people, Liu said.
Liu said NTU was a time-honored institution that offered education in various fields of expertise and enjoyed ample resources, but its greatest pride is in the acclaimed qualities of its students, who are therefore shouldered with great responsibility.
Photo: Tung Chen-kuo, Taipei Times
“The cultivation of an intellectual elite necessitates academic knowledge and general knowledge, as well as courage and insight and appreciation,” he said.
However, Liu said that while Taiwan has nurtured an abundance of doctorate holders, the country has only seen the creation of a handful of innovative companies.
“If even NTU graduates are in dread of innovating and taking chances, where will Taiwan’s [global] competitiveness come from in the future?” Liu asked.
NTU president Lee Si-chen (李嗣涔) said the university not only has coconut trees growing on campus, but dragon junipers alongside them, which provide shade, adding that the university is putting more weight on cooperation between students.
The National Taiwan University of Science and Technology in Taipei chose a venue simulating an air terminal to stage its commencement ceremony.
On entering the venue, graduates handed over a boarding pass written with their future aspirations to service staff dressed as flight attendants, while holding in their hands a mock passport with the sentence “[We are] graduating” printed on its cover — a ritual designed to represent graduates heading to their futures.
In central Taiwan, graduates of Tunghai University, Greater Taichung, passed a wooden knocker on to others during their graduation ceremony, as a kind of “torch-passing” ceremony.
In his speech to the graduates, Vice Premier Jiang Yi-hua (江宜樺) encouraged the young adults to develop enthusiasm, ideals, tolerance, respect and persistence.
In a ceremony at National Chiao Tung University in Hsinchu County, Phison Electronics Corp president Pan chien-cheng (潘健成), who is also an alumnus of the university, shared with graduates his life experience and ideals.
“Passion is the key to success, while sustainable success requires a sense of responsibility. This generation of young people does not lack capability, but an [appropriate] attitude,” Pan said.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday attended the commencement ceremony at National Taiwan University of Arts, during which he urged graduates to not only be creative, but to give thought to how to make use to it and to employ it to inpire their imagination.
Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) appeared at the graduation ceremonies of three universities in Greater Kaohsiung, including I-Shou University, Cheng Shiu University and National Kaohsiung Normal University.
Translated by Stacy Hsu, Staff Writer
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching