After 20 years of being an irreplaceable medium to entangle Chung Cheng University (CCU) and its alumni with the love and care for the university, the Association of CCU Alumni (中正大學校友總會), has not only gone through many important milestones of the development of the university, but also always been the loyal sponsor organization supporting the university and its fellow students with various resources. On the 16th of July 2022, the Association of CCU Alumni welcomed the celebration of its 20th birthday and hosted the first meeting of the 11th Association Members’ Assembly. At the meeting, Mr. Chien-Wei Kuo, an alumnus of the Department of Labor Relations and Director General of the Yunlin County Trade Unions Joint Service Center, took over the position as the 11th president of the Association. In the future, president Kuo will spare no effort in encouraging more CCU alumni of various colleges and departments to join the Association, and making the Association the most solid alternative backbone of the university.

When receiving the imprimatur of the Association in the turn over ceremony from Mr. Yuh-Hsien Chou, the 10th president of the Association of CCU Alumni, Mr. Chien-Wei Kuo, an alumnus of the Department of Labor Relations, was officially appointed the 11th successor. According to CCU, Mr. Chien-Wei Kuo who was born in Gukeng, Yunlin, entered the CCU Labor Relations Department as a regular master student in 1999. As an expert in the field of labor relations, Kuo has been involved in labor disputes and employment mediation related missions for more than ten years. Currently, in addition to serving as the director-general of the Yunlin County Trade Unions Joint Service Center, the president of the International Management Council of Yunlin (YunlinIMC), he also works as a mediator and the mediation committee member of labor-management disputes for Yunlin and Chiayi county governments, and is invited to be the mediation committee member of the Judicial Yuan.

Seeing the rising awareness of workers’ rights, president Kuo listed labor relations as one of the top three topics for his university study long time ago when he was still in high school. Kuo pointed out that by the time when he was planning to pursuit his master’s study, there were only three labor-related graduate institutes in Taiwan and CCU Department of Labor Relations is the one renowned in the field. During his master’s study in the CCU Department of Labor Relations, Kuo was deeply helped and inspired by his advisor and thereafter embarked on the path of labor disputes mediation. Kuo explained that every case of labor disputes is like a test in study. It requires years of accumulated experience in communicating with the labor and the management to find out the appropriate solutions, laws and decrees to help reach the agreement for these two parties in a particular dispute. The task can be challenging and fully loaded with duties. In the past, he had once dealt with more than a hundred cases in a year.

In addition to helping set up a number of trade unions in Yunlin County, president Kuo also established the vocational training center to support the incumbent workers to improve their skills or develop a second expertise, and at the same time to help unemployed workers re-enter the workplace. Ten years ago, due to the invitation from Mr. Chung-Hui Sun, the 6th president of the Association of CCU Alumni, Kuo joined the Association and successively served as the executive member, the executive director and afterward, the 10th secretary-general.

Looking back on the performance of the Association in the past two years, despite the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, the Association was never stopped by the ordeal and continued to support and care for the university. CCU disclosed that, during these two years of disease outbreak, the Association of CCU Alumni not only donated NT$ 180,000 together with the Academic Foundation Chungcheng University and the Friends of Chung Cheng University to help cover the quarantine accommodation costs for 48 international students, but also continued to sponsor CCU iGEM student teams to participate in international competitions and to fund the rewards for CCU sports teams. Last year, the Association mobilized its member associations in Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, the alumni associations of CCU departments and graduate institutes including the Labor Relations, Electrical Engineering, Finance, the Institute of Strategic and International Affairs, and the Adult and Continuing Education, as well as the EMBA Institute of the College of Management, to attend the Appreciation Luncheon for the 32nd anniversary of Chung Cheng University to jointly help raise money for the Chiayi Opportunity and Hope Scholarships (嘉有機會希望專戶獎助學金) of the university.

\"Once a CCU student, forever a member of the institution. We will always love our Chung Cheng university.\" Mr. Yuh-Hsien Chou, the 10th president of the Association of CCU Alumni, said that the end of his tenure as president signifies that the Association of CCU Alumni has reached its 20th of age like a mature person. This is the new milestone for the organization and worthy of being celebrated with joy. He then mentioned that during his presidency, he had specially invited the deans of seven CCU colleges as the consultants, expecting these deans to use their power to recruit more permanent members from their departments and institutes to join the Association, together, to contribute something great back to the university.

Regarding the future planning for the next two years, the new president Kuo stated that at the moment, he has invited representatives of the four member alumni associations in Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung to serve as the committee members of the Association in his term of office. Kuo hopes it can help bridge these member associations, and bring the member associations closer to the mother association. He also plans to be involve with various activities organized by each CCU departments and institutes, and invite outstanding alumni to attend those activities to share experiences with their fellow students, so as to strength the relationship between students and the Association of CCU Alumni, thus, helping the Association to grow continuously.