On March 2, the 2005 entrance ceremony was held at the University Auditorium. President Kang Jung-chae declared the admissions of 6,206 students (4,462 to bachelor’s degree courses, 1,231 to master’s courses, 70 to the graduate professional schools, and 443 to doctoral degree courses).
On February 19, CNU provided an orientation program for the newly-admitted students at Yomju Gymnasium in order to explain the current situations of the University. For the program, some popular entertainers were invited.
President Kang Jung-chae’s Congratulatory Speech at the Ceremony
New CNU students!
We welcome all of you and give my congratulations for your success in college admission. I would like to begin my remarks by giving you applauses to all of you who have devoted yourselves to this moment of success. I give my thanks to you who honor this University by your presence.
Today we certainly live in an age of rapid transformation. Spurred by the information revolution based on digital technology, vast knowledge assets are flowing across national borders. Universities are academic groups of intellectuals and a place for pursuing, creating and processing knowledge. Knowledge is a tool of self-realization in the information age. We look upon the immense challenges and opportunities which lie before all of us fortunate enough to have been given this mission in higher education. Higher education institutions should face tremendous challenges because of the requirements of an emerging knowledge-based society, which lead to changes in education and society. The CNU community has made tremendous progress so far. However, we cannot deny that the University sometimes stepped back from the demands of the times and dwelled on the given conditions.
CNU faculty, staff, and students!
We are now standing at a new starting point. I view the process of developing a coherent vision for the University as one that is incremental, participative, and subject to constant revision and adjustment. We need to encourage ourselves to engage in a serious dialogue over the future of the University and the community. We should not be rendered helpless from leading the changes of the times. Through incessant self-innovations, all of us need to stay abreast of rapidly changing trends. Please join me to create a new history of the flight for the future. The responsibility of making the university
s mission into reality lies on all of you.
As President, I will make utmost efforts to improve educational resources to enhance student learning in all relevant disciplines. CNU will cultivate a pioneering spirit among young students and prepare them to face the new challenges that lie ahead. I will devote to the development of CNU as a global and dynamic institution and embrace society at large and the world as a whole. In regards of education, research, administration, and commitment to the community, the University will give primary values on these things.
CNU students!
The University and the local community are inseparably related to each other. They are one. Without the regional development, we cannot expect the university development and vice versa. CNU
s future and the future of the Gwangju-Jeonnam Region are intervened. CNU will approach closer to the community and encourage new and creative initiatives linking CNU and the community. It will create and strengthen local, national and international networks of institutions of higher education committed to engagement with the local community. To those of you here today representing other institutions of higher education and learned societies, I hope that CNU will grow in its reputation and in its contributions to our system of education and learning in the world.
160,000 Yongbongians!
You are the power of our University and the pride of CNU. CNU has grown up with you for the last fifty-two years and it will also continue to grow. CNU has relied on your assistance to meet the challenges of change and growth. Today, as President of the University, I would like to ask you to continue to serve as strong supporters for the university development. I pledge that I will exert all-out efforts to make you feel proud of the University and willing to visit the campus at any time you want.
CNU will make the fullest and most significant contribution to the world that its collective talents, resources and aspirations can achieve and that its history, character and people deserve. I come before you today to pledge my commitment to expand the excellence of all the endeavors of this magnificent University. I will strive to be a good steward of our resources; to listen to you and ultimately make decisions based on data and sound judgment; to serve as an ambassador as well as a leader and to represent you and your interests as best I can. Thank you for all of your support and expressions of good will. I wish you all the same as you change the world and have a good time doing it. Thank you.
