今年是同济医学院诞生110周年的校庆，使我想起自己在富有激情的岁月里做过的一件不成功的事情，一晃眼都快20年了。故事发生在1998年，当时我己经来美国8年了，但是通讯远没有现在这么通畅。我在网上游览时发现了上海同济大学的美国校友会的网站，他们的网站做得漂亮的原因恐怕是因为他们校友会主席是在同济学计算机出身的，而武汉同济当时没有任何的美国校友会，更谈不上网站了。
当时新浙江大学已经通过合并产生，虽然只有浙大一家合并了，但对全国的冲击很大。原来的浙江医科大学已经成为新浙大的医学院，我想母校同济医科大学的命运也只能走合并的道路了。我觉得同济与其和武汉大学合并，不与重归上海同济而成为同济大学医学院，当时我借用美国康乃尔大学和它的医学院分隔几百英里的例子来说服自己和大家，如果当时有高铁就更有说服力了。我便给上海同济美国校友会的网上联系邮箱写了一封信，没有想到的是，他们以校友会主席吴建为主的数位负责人迅速并且热情地回应了我。吴建当时还是一位单身贵族，现在己经是相当成功的IT创业人士了。我们一拍即合地决定先在美国建立联合的同济校友会，将他们的网站改成联合校友会的网站，然后试图游说国内的两所同济响应。他们当时积极与上海同济大学女校长吴启迪联系，据说还得到了她的支持，我则给武汉的裘法祖教授写过亲笔信，但是没有得到裘先生的回函。他们还弄了个一官半职给我，任命我为同济大学美国联合校友会的副主席，让我负责武汉同济方面的工作。这样我起草了一份希望上海同济和武汉同济合并的英文呼吁书，放在了联合同济校友会的网上。
虽然这是一段未竟的尝试，但它表达的是天下同济人对母校的感情，包括一位普通的武汉同济美国校友的担心，因为他的母校仅从校名来看就是这么颠簸流离：同济大学医学院、中南同济医学院、武汉医学院、同济医科大学和华中科技大学同济医学院。还是让大家读这段值得回味的历史吧：
1。下面为我在2010年9月20日放入新浪博客时写的备注。当时我还不会中文输入法，所以全部用英文写成：
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 was ultimately 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.
2。An essay written in 1998 for combined Tongji website: （当时我为同济大学联合美国校友会网站写的呼吁上海同济和武汉同济合并的英文文章，曾经放在我们网站的首页。当时中文软件更是十分缺乏，只能写英文）
“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 the 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. In a united Tongji University, medical students need spend three to four years of their college life in the main campus of Shanghai Tongji to build a solid foundation on basic science and humanity knowledge. With a deep understanding of the laws about how nature and society operate and function, the medical students will have more broad views to go back to Wuhan Tongji for finishing their formal medical training. The requirement of completed college education prior to medical school, beginning at Johns Hopkins University approximately one hundred years ago, is a characterized principle of America's medical education system. This system is renowned for its ability of producing not only highly quality clinical practitioners for manage care but also the outstanding physician scientists for scientific discovery and innovation. If we could establish this system in Tongji successfully, the demands of high quality pre-medical education are also a driving force to enhance Shanghai Tongji's development on basic science and humanity departments, a transition from a technical institute into a real comprehensive university.
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 impressed that the medical schools in this country are almost always the largest and most important component in the university. The reason for this phenomenon is very simple, that is because human being cares about themselves, life science has a direct beneficial impact on the mankind.
We have demonstrated that the unification of two universities of Tongji is an exciting project to explore. The positive results of the project will benefit both universities and significantly improve Tongji University's position in the map of China's high education. We have agreed to unite our America's Alumni organization of both schools as one of the initial steps. Let's work together to push this project forward and turn our dream into a reality as soon as it can.”
