More than thousand people, including many retired colleagues returned this year to participate in NTHU's Chinese New Year Celebration on Feb. 3rd. The atmosphere was joyous, warm and festive as people enjoyed various events and exchanged Happy New Year greetings.

In his New Year's greeting, President Chen reviewed the state of NTHU and discussed his plans for university's future. He opened his address by expressing his appreciation of support and contribution that students, faculty and alumni have given to NTHU over the years. He also thanked everyone for their efforts to further improve our academic performance which was clearly exemplified this year by NTHU's improvement in various domestic as well as international academic institution rankings. He emphasized, however, that the next five years would be critical in our continuous effort to achieve academic excellence. We shall further improve our reputation by offering the best teaching programs and conducting cutting edge research. The university administration has also mapped out several strategies for recruiting the best talents to join our faculty and attract exceptional students from home and abroad. Of course, we shall also double our efforts to secure adequate funds to support teaching and research programs as well as to the overall improvement of learning environment and campus infrastructure.

Unlike previous celebrations where the student performance was the major highlight of the program, this year's celebration featured the songs and dances performed by faculty and staff members as well as international students from diverse cultural backgrounds. President Chen and senior administrators brought down the house with their rendition of "Friend" and the drawing for door prizes.