Bulletin Vol. 5 No. 4 Dec 1968

Much more active steps will be taken to maintain liaison with the other regional and inter national organizations concerned with education. Vice-Chancellor Choh-Ming Li and Prof. S.S. Hsueh, Professor of Government and Public Ad ministration assigned to United College, represented the University at this Seventh General Conference. Mr. James C. Yuan, Assistant Registrar of the University, also attended as observer. The New ASA IHL A d d r e s s t o t he Se ve n th G e n e r a l C o n f e r e n c e o f A S A I H L b y V i c e - C h a n c e l l o r C h o h - M i n g L i Pr e s i d e n t , A S A I H L I must again express to you my gratitude for the honour you have done me by electing me President of ASAIHL. I am deeply conscious of the obligations I must assume and of the great opportunity you have entrusted to me. I assure you that I shall do everything in my power to fulfil that trust. There is a very special challenge in the task you have asked me to assume. That is the challenge of following the versatile and unique President who has just relinquished this chair, Dr. Carlos P. Romulo. It is difficult in few words to pay adequate tribute to the contribution he has made to ASAIHL. Even before he became President two years ago, he was aiding the development of this Association with forward-looking ideas, with his rich experience, and with his enthusiasm. To the presidency he brought both distinction and wise leadership. He also brought the vision of a strengthened and vitalized association of universities. No one knows better than you of the Philippines how he has worked to broaden our membership. A ll of us are aware of his unceasing efforts to place ASATHL upon a sound foundation of adequate support and excellent performance. Happily, he will continue to serve as an e x - o f f i c i o member of our Administrative Board. I ask you to join me in a tribute to President Romulo. This Seventh Conference will be a memorable one in the history of ASAIHL. It marks a turning point. We shall leave this university where we have laboured in such comfort, and we shall leave the warm hospitality of the Philippines with the satisfaction of having created a new ASAIHL. The changes we have wrought in the past three days have given this association of universities not only greater stature but also much greater usefulness. We have endowed it with more power to assist the strengthening of our Southeast Asian Universities. We have enabled it to become a more vital force in the growth of our countries and our region. In the first place, we have strengthened our Administrative Board and given it new meaning. By the ingenious combination of election and appointment which our skilled President applied yesterday afternoon we have an Administrative Board composed of the rectors and vice-chancellors of some of Southeast Asia's most distinguished universities. Meeting this morning, these university heads or their appointed delegates decided that each member of the Administrative Board should appoint as an alternate, a professor from the university faculties, not necessarily from his own university. Whenever the Board meets, as it does regularly once each year, the alternates, the professors, as well as the Board members will be invited to attend. In this way we gain the judgments of both the principal administrators and the faculties. We strengthen the relationships between them. And our Board becomes a stronger implement for guiding, on your behalf, the destinies of ASAIHL. I assure you that we carefully determined in advance that this innovation is clearly within the limits of our constitution. We have made still another change that will help our programming and our policy making. The new Board determined this morning to establish an executive committee that will meet three times each year between the annual meetings of the full Board. The committee will consist of the President, the Vice-President, Dr. Toh Chin Chye, and Father Diaz, who was selected by his fellows to fill the third place. The Executive Committee will meet with the Executive Secretary, Dr. Prachoom, to review the work of each quarter, to plan programmes, and to provide continuing policy guidance. The first meeting of the new Executive Committee will be held in early March. Now as to programme. In accordance with the decision which you took yesterday, there will be just two seminars each year. One will be concerned with the substance of learning, the other with university development. And again following your guidance, we are strongly determined that the seminars in each category shall build upon one another. Thus, your Board has determined with Dr. Prachoom that the next substantive seminar 一 2 —