Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) yesterday promised to tackle the dual problem of maintaining the historic Huanmin New Village (煥民新村) and a shortage of dormitories for National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST) students.
During a question-and-answer session with Wu, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) said that plans to refurbish historic buildings in the Huanmin village and a Japanese colonial-era research institute to improve agricultural products were missing from the Ministry of Education’s report to address insufficient dormitories at universities — including at NTUST.
Huanmin New Village is a military dependents’ housing complex on Toad Mountain (蟾蜍山) in Taipei’s Gongguang area (公館). The houses, used by military officials working in the air base and their families, date back to the 1950s when the US and Taiwan jointly established an air base to defend the nation against China’s People’s Liberation Army forces.
Photo provided by Good Toad Workshop
The Taipei City Government in 2000 granted the plot on which the village and the institute are located to the university, which plans to use the space to construct school buildings, including students’ dormitories.
Citing the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (文化資產保存法), Cheng said that the university, as the landowner, is obligated to renovate historic buildings on its land.
She said that after years of coordinating between the university and village residents, she is under the impression that the university wants the houses demolished so that it can carry out construction.
Cheng said that the ministry, which oversees the university’s operations, and university administrators should not stand idly by and wait for the buildings to fall into a state of disrepair, but should instead propose maintenance plans.
Cheng asked Wu if the ministry could financially support the university in its renovation work.
She said that the ministry should prioritize NTUST when addressing issues surrounding dormitories because the university will affect Huanmin New Village’s fate.
Wu promised to free up the ministry’s capital to generate money to assist with maintenance work for the historic buildings, and to seek available land to be used by the university to build new dormitories.
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