Shandong University of Technology (SDUT) initiated a project to amend its “Articles of Association” in July directed by the Party Committee of the University, in accordance with the requirements of the notice on starting a new round of amending “Articles of Association” of colleges and universities issued by the Department of Education of Shandong Province. The working group of SDUT in charge of the amendment studied the gist of the notice, grasped the principles, requirements and priorities of the amendment, revised and improved some of the articles, and finalized the “Amendment to the Articles of Association (Draft) of SDUT” (“Amendment” for short) after discussions by holding symposiums participated by representatives of teachers and students.
On the afternoon of Nov. 19, the university held its sixth session of the third faculty congress in the lecture hall of No.3 Teaching Building, in which the “Amendment” was passed. Those attending the meeting included school leaders, among others, Lv Chuanyi, Zhang Tiezhu, Yi Yuchen, Hu Xingyu, Liu Guohua, Zhang Xiangyun, Wei Xiuting, Zha Yuxi and Zhang Jinsheng, and more than 200 faculty representatives.
President Zhang Tiezhu, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of SDUT, made a statement on the “Amendment”. After briefly introducing the background of the “Amendment”, the President stressed its great significance. “It is an institutional guarantee for the direction of running schools.” said zhang. “And it is a requirement for implementing the fundamental tasks of building morality and cultivating talents, and a basis for deepening the reform and development of higher education.”
Zhang pointed out that the “Amendment” would be made from three aspects. One is to fully implement new requirements for a new era—cultivating intellectuals with socialist ideals, high moral standards and fine artistic tastes, and strengthening the status of students and teachers—guided by Xi Jinping’s theory of “Socialism with the characteristics of China for a New Era”. The second is to fully implement the reform requirements for higher education management, making sure that the university can independently determine the setting procedures for management institutions of the Party and Government, formulate the evaluation standards for teachers’ professional titles, dispose state-owned assets and other independent rights according to relevant regulations, and establish and improve the system provisions for fulfilling the autonomy according to law. The third is to summarize the characteristics of running the university, and the results and experience of the school’s reform and development, thus making them stable, long-term tradition.
Zhang Tiezhu also made a detailed description of the preliminary work and the specific content of the “Amendment”.
After the vote, the Congress passed the “Amendment”.
Lv Chuanyi, Secretary of the Party Committee of SDUT, presided over the meeting and put forward three suggestions on how to implement the school’s “Articles of Association” and how to run the school according to law.
First, we should raise the awareness to strengthen the construction of modern university system, of which that of “Articles of Association” is an important part. Therefore, we should earnestly study and implement the gist of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, by taking the “Amendment” as the guide, improving the capacity of system construction and governance system construction, and establishing various rules and regulations, thereby laying a solid institutional foundation for promoting quality, connotative development of the school.
Second, we should take the “Amendment” as an opportunity to further deepen the comprehensive reform of the school, by making overall plans, strengthening the design, focusing on the systematization, integrity and coordination, and stimulating and releasing the vitality better.
Third, we should take measures to publicize and interpret the “Amendment”. Delegates should be good advocates, taking the lead in learning, publicizing, and abiding by the articles, and strive to write a new chapter in the development of a high-level, domestically-renowned teaching-and-research university with characteristics of its own, with unified thoughts, strong awareness, and enhanced cohesion.
The meeting concluded with impassioned singing of the school song.