An overseas alumni home coming group led by Dr. Zhi-hao Gu (CV77) of Houston, TX, participated in this grant event in Dalian and their reports follow.
Trip Report on Attending DUT's Semicentennial Anniversary
by Zhi-hao Gu (CV77), Houston, Texas, USA
July 20, 1999During May 22 and 23, a group of overseas alumni attended DUTs 50-year anniversary celebration activities. Altogether there were 20+ alumni from overseas. Among them, about 11 from Japan, led by Yang, Kejian and 7 from US and Europe. They are Qian Tang (US), Lei, Lei (US), Feng, Yu (Ireland), Wang, Luojia (US), Zhu, Yuanxian (US), Zhang Xikun (US, Civil 1955), Chen Jiesi (US, Civil 1957), Guan, Liqiu (US), Gu, Zhihao (US), Zheng, Yong (Gernamy), Xiu, Shilang (Germany) and Cheng, Guohua (Hongkong). See photos from Dalian and DUT.
The DUT FAO (foreign affairs office) made outstanding logistic arrangements, including airport and railway station picking up, hotel accommodations and etc. for the overseas alumni delegation, during the entire duration of the stay (different length for different people). Especially, Ms. Li, Jinghua put in a lot of personal efforts to meet the needs of the delegation. All the overseas alumni stayed at the Foreign Expert Exchange Center (Zuan1 Zhao1). I learnt later that during those two days, the rooms in Zuan Zhao were very much in demand due to large number of alumni. Only overseas alumni, academians and special guests could stay there.
By the time I arrived at DUT, May 21, I found that the names of contributors who donated more than RMB1000 (US $120 equivalent) had been carved on the wall of Buochuan Library. For overseas alumni, the two donations, one for Buochuan library and one the for 50th anniversary, were added. There are still space on the library wall to add the names of new donors of $120 or more. But I don't know if more names have been added since many alumni made donations during and after the ceremony.
In the evening of May 21, DUT organized a dinner party for all overseas alumni at Foreign Expert Exchange Cente. Former president Professor Qian Lingxi, President Cheng Gengdong, party Secretary and former president Li Anxi, former president and party Secretary Jin Tongji, two former party Secretaries from 1950s, and many famous professors (most of them were academians) attended the dinner party. President Chen gave a welcome speech. The alumni had opportunities to interact with the university leaders and academic leaders in various fields.
Most of the University level activities were held on May 22 (Sat.). From 9:00~10:00am, we attended the anniversary ceremony at Dalian Stadium. As reported in the special reports at the ODUT web site, 6000 people attended the ceremony. Many VIPs, including Mayor Buo Xilai, President of Beijing University, Chen Jiare who is a DUT alumni, gave speeches. Afterwards, many of them were bused back to the main campus for the opening ceremony of the Buochuan Library held around 10:50am (I heard that DUT booked all the buses and vans of all the universities in the city that day). We had lunch at the old Faculty Dinning Hall in the East Hill (Dong Shan). Do you all remember that old place where we had meals for years before coming abroad? It has been remodeled and the conditions are fairly good. It is clean with color TVs mounted on the walls. In the afternoon, some of us went to different activities, such as special lectures, visiting natioanl key laboratories etc. In the evening, we all attended the banquet in the Fulihua Da Jiou Dian, a 5-star level modern hotel in downtown. After the dinner, a concert/show/party was held in the main building square from 8:00 ~ 10:00 PM.
Right after the dinner, Cheng Guohua (from Hongkong) came to me and gave me RMB2000 as his contribution. Many other alumni also made contributions directly to Ms. Li Jinghua pf FAO. As of the evening of May 22, the total contribution from all overseas alumni reached US$18,920 (including US$6535.50 + Japanese Yan 665,811.10 + RMB 61,200). The Japanese Yan and RMB 32,000 were donated by the alumni in Japan. Among the US $6535.50, $5453.50 were donated by overseas alumni in USA, Europe, Hongkong and Australia, collected by Jiguang Zhang, and the rest was donated directly to FAO by alumni Qian Tang, Zhu Yuanxian, Zhang Xikun and Chen Jiesi, Zheng Yong and Xu Shilang. After the dinner party, Ms Li Jinghua and her staff worked till very late in the night to make 4 large symbolic checks for us, which were used for the ceremony scheduled the next morning. The checks look very nice and realistic (see the pictures attached).
On the morning of May 23, a special donation ceremony was held at the conference room of the Foreign Expert Exchange Cente. Besides all the overseas alumni, other attendees were: President Cheng Gengdong, Deputy Party Secretary, Head of DUT`s personnel department, Director of the Buochuan Library, Director of the DUT Press, and the deputy director of the FAO, Ms. Li Jinghua.
President Cheng first thanked the overseas alumni for their contributions to the Ala Mata and then described DUT recent achievements and future development plans. He encouraged all DUT overseas alumni to continue to support DUT in any way they can. He mentioned that the Dalian City government is now very supportive of DUT, and Mayor Bo Xinai has pledged significant funding for a few special projects at DUT. The near term goal in improving faculty's living conditions is to have an average of 100 square meters (1,000 sf) per family within 2 years. Also, DUT is planning to build a stadium with indoor sports facilities, so that students can have physical classes in rainy days for the first time in 50 years. Representatives of overseas alumni also delivered brief speeches. The director of the personnel department distributed official documents, including the requirements and the compensation packages, for Chang Jiang (Yongtzi River) Scholar and other high-level faculty positions. She encouraged alumni to apply for the positions (the position list can be obtained from DUT. I do have a copy. If anyone would like a copy from me, please let me know by email at george_z_gu@email.mobil.com).
Afterwards, ODUT representatives and other individuals presented to President Cheng the donation checks, and then President Cheng presented to the alumni with personalized donation certificates (Jiguang Zhang will distribute them to every contributor) and a DUT flag (one for ODUT in USA and one for the Japan branch). Alumni Feng Yu, Wang Luojia and Yang Kejian for the Japan branch presented to the Buochuan Library director with the books they donated to the library. The director of the DUT Press presented to the Japan branch with a special certificate for their contribution for the publication of the DUT 50-year anniversary books. The ceremony was adjourned by a photo session. Although there was a discussion session planned after the photo session with President Cheng, it was cut short due to President Cheng's other prior arrangements. Overall, the university did appreciate very much our donations and we all should be proud of our contributions.
During our visit, many alumni worked with different departments on various technical issues, gave seminars, and had meetings with their counterparts at DUT. Some of us had face to face meetings with university leaders, and some had face to face discussions with DUT students. What`s worth mentioning is that Feng Yu had a solo open discussion session with students (graduates and undergraduates). She reported that most questions were about graduate studies overseas. Based on the questions, Feng Yu suggested that we establish a bulletin board at our web site for them to post questions. Many of the overseas delegates did take every opportunity to distribute the ODUT web site address. It seems to us that not many students know about our ODUT.
Regarding how to use our donation funds, I asked Ms Li Jinghua of FAO to get a few more proposals from the University, and only one additional proposal came back, which is to build a tennis court inside the proposed sports center. Ms Li Jinghua has re-confirmed that DUT will match our donation 1:1. Jiguang Zhang will post the proposals in details for the final vote.
Overall, it was an outstanding ceremony and I wish more ODUTers could have gone back together. Some photos taken at DUT are attached.