We are surprised to realize that we have already arrived in an age that we are able to tell a decade-old story. In the fall of 1998, we sensed an upcoming transition that our Alma Mater, Tongji Medical University, may have to face in the era when the new Zhijiang University was emerging through the combination of four different schools in Hangzhou. My browse activities led me find a newly developed website of Tongji University America Alumni Association (TJUAAA) under the leadership of their president Jian Wu. He was a computer science major from Shanghai Tongji and had been working as a software engineer in the Bay area of California.My email communication with Jian received an enthusiastic response on my initial proposal of exploring the possibility to merge two Tongjis in the future. After a few round of discussions, we believed it would be a good idea to have a combined Tongji website to serve all of the Tongji alumni. I drafted an essay to explain our joined mission and this article was put into the combined Tongji alumni website.
Unlike the strong influential alumni groups in the United States,our voice had a limited calling power as this campaign wa sultimately unsuccessful and we are now part of HUST since 2000. One positive outcome from this is that I got reconnected with one classmate who was doing the postdoctoral training in Germany, while I was coordinated to collect the communication list of the alumni from Wuhan Tongji. Later on, we all were aware of Chen Ligong's noted article on the opposition of Wuhan Tongji's merge with HUST,and some details in the nearly humiliated negotiation process with Wuhan University. We completely understood the feeling when Qiu Fazhu and Wu Zhongbi were in a position to defend Tongji’s brand in their talks with the arrogant Wuda officials. Reading through these twelve-year old words, the emotion is still there.
Essay written in 1998 for combined Tongjiwebsite:
“As one of the most prestigious universities in China, Tongji started her prospective journey as a medical school in Shanghai,which was established by German physician Dr. Bolon in 1907. Early Tongji Medical School with its special relationship with Germany,while a powerhouse in medical education and research, had served as a unique academic basis to introduce modern western medicine to ancient China.
The rich history on medical education has been associated with Tongji University for almost a half century. However, the order of separating Tongji's Medical School from its main campus in 1950s had a terrible impact on Tongji University's operation as a first-class university although the separated Tongji Medical University in Wuhan has been developed into one of the finest medical schools in China. Last year, thousands of Tongji alumni around t he world, together with faculties and students of Tongji University in Shanghai (Shanghai Tongji) and Tongji Medical University in Wuhan (Wuhan Tongji), simultaneously celebrated our Alma Mater's 90 years birthday. Looking back, the two universities of Tongji not only share the respected name but also the tradition of excellence on teaching and research; Looking forward, the two Tongjis have to face the future challenge: recombination of the high education system in response to the merging China's economic power.
The idea of potentially merging Shanghai Tongji and Wuhan Tongji in a near future has received a strong positive response from numerous alumni and friends associated with both universities. It will be an exciting project to pursue in terms of combining two solid schools with a similar history.
It is obvious that we need work hard to overcome the geographic barrier between Wuhan and Shanghai, but these concerns can be minimized in the situation when China becomes more advanced in electrical communication and transportation. In the United States,one of Ivy League, Cornell University has been successfully operating its medical school in New York City, several hundred miles from its main campus in Ithaca, Upstate New York. We even can view this problem positively, medical students who have a privilege to study in the environment of both Shanghai and Wuhan sub-cultures will enrich their life experiences in a wonderful young age.
It is also a privilege for any comprehensive university (even in the United States) to host a medical school. There are only 128 medical schools in this country compared with more than one thousand universities and colleges around the fifty states. If you consider the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) as a medical school of UC, Berkeley, Princeton University may be the only elite comprehensive university who does not have a medical school in the United States.
We have demonstrated that the unification of two universities of Tongji is an exciting project to explore. The positive results ofthe project will benefit both universities and significantly improve Tongji University's position in the map of China's higheducation. We have agreed to unite our America's Alumni organization of both schools as one of the initial steps. Let'swork together to push this project forward and turn our dream into a reality as soon as it can.”
Posted 星期四, 05/27/2010 - 07:55 atwww.tongjiyiren.com
