A welcoming ceremony and parents day activities were held for this year’s freshmen students on September 8. During the ceremony, NTU President Si-chen Lee called on the students to take full advantage of the university’s abundant resources and develop their open-mindedness and sensibilities during their golden years here at NTU. The same day a student club fair allowed NTU’s students to showcase their personal interests and spirit of positivity and innovation for their new schoolmates.

President Lee opened his speech by pointing out to the new students that NTU boasts the finest resources of any university in Taiwan and that with the support of the Ministry of Education it has joined the ranks of the world’s leading one hundred universities. President Lee noted that NTU’s aggressive pursuit of international cooperation has led to the establishment of three world-class research centers recently. Declaring that the university will continue to develop its campus facilities, he called on the freshmen to make the most of their golden years at NTU by developing their open-mindedness and sensibilities rather than simply training for a career. President Lee said that while the freshmen are the best students in the nation, now that they are in university they need to avoid placing excessive importance on class rankings because innovation is more important than grades. He cited the examples of Google and Facebook, companies started by university students that went on to change the world.

President Lee emphasized the importance of independent thinking, saying that NTU’s courses offer a diversity of knowledge and academic thought across all fields and that this will become the foundation of the students’ experience and knowledge. In the course of his speech, President Lee enumerated “five musts” to highlight his aspirations for NTU’s new students: open-mindedness, the courage to try, independent judgment, a broad view of life, honesty, and integrity.

NTU is proud of its many student clubs that allow students to explore their interests in a wide range of pursuits and hobbies. Each club was set up for a different purpose; some clubs offer classes to help students develop their interests while others provide community services that allow students to grow while feeding back to society.

The student club fair lined Royal Palm Boulevard with booths and displays showcasing all of the university clubs. The members of the many martial arts clubs were decked out in their uniforms and sparred with their partners to display their fighting skills. The kendo club even brought out a training dummy to give the new students the chance to test their skills. Arts and culture clubs also showed their colors. The members of the Taiwanese puppet opera club dressed up as puppet characters and demonstrated how to manipulate the puppets.