The Retirement Ceremony for Retired Faculty and Staff of TU in 2024 was held at Jiaojiang Campus on the afternoon of December 25. University leaders Zhu Jian, Yue Chuanyong, Lou Danqun, Yang Jianguo, Xiang Fengri, Li Jianjun, Ding Yizhi, Cai Haijiang, Zheng Lijun, and Wu Yinyin attended the ceremony.
Group photo of participating university leaders and representatives of retired faculty and staff in 2024
In his speech, Zhu Jian, Secretary of the CPC TU Committee, expressed the university’s profound respect and sincere gratitude to the 38 retired faculty and staff for their contributions to the university’s reform, development and construction. He said that the retirement ceremony not only conveys the university’s gratitude, nostalgia, and care for the retired faculty and staff, but also serves as a reminder for all university’s staff to keep in mind their mission of teaching and managing students, enhance their professional honor and pride, continuously transmit the power of teaching ethics, create “education with warmth,” and plant the belief in teaching and selfless dedication in the hearts of every employee, so that the culture of respecting teachers and attaching importance to education can continue to be inherited and promoted on campus.
Zhu Jian delivers a speech
Zhu emphasized that teachers are the guides for students’ growth, and the university remembers the struggles, efforts and selfless dedication of every teacher. Every teacher is a glory and pride of the university. He pointed out that retired faculty and staff are valuable assets to the university. They are the “thoughtful people” and “strong backers” of the university’s development. Zhu hoped that all cadres, teachers, and students would remain true to their starting aspirations, forge ahead, learn from the elder colleagues, and continue the work from one generation to the next to write a new chapter for the university’s mission of “upgrading to a higher-level university, applying for doctoral degree conferring programs, and striving for a first-class university.”
Zhu Jian, Yue Chuanyong and the retired faculty representative
During the ceremony, representatives of the retired faculty and staff, such as Pan Tongtian, the former Deputy Secretary of the CPC TU Committee, and Shen Zhiping, a teacher from the School of Teacher Education, took the stage in order of their retirement dates. Zhu Jian and Yue Chuanyong presented them with flowers, red scarves, and commemorative albums, respectively, and took group photos with them after expressing their thanks. Everyone present also watched a specially prepared documentary for the retired faculty and staff and blessings recorded by their departments.
“It’s a great honor and pride to have experienced such tremendous changes and contributed my sweat to them!” Professor Gao Fei, a representative of the retired faculty and staff from the School of Marxism, emotionally recounted stories from his 36 years of work. He said that in the future, there will always be pairs of aging but sincere eyes watching everyone, and a group of retired teachers cheering everyone on. He wished the university prosperity and an early realization of its dream.
Representatives of the retired and young faculty make speeches respectively
Xiao Shengwei, a representative of the young teachers from the School of Pharmaceutical and Chemical Engineering, recalled the growth he had achieved over the past six years with the care and help of senior teachers and expressed his determination to take up the baton entrusted by the times, fulfill his original aspirations with his youth, forge ahead along the footsteps of his predecessors, and strive to make “Harmonious, Vibrant, Beautiful, and Happy TU” a reality.
Performances at the ceremony
At the ceremony, wonderful performances were also presented for the retired teachers, including a folk music ensemble titled “New Words from Dunhuang,” a recital titled “The Long Song,” songs such as “China in the Lights” and “Singing in the New Era,” and dances like “The Most Beautiful China” and “Heart of the Ocean.”
Nearly 400 people, including representatives of retired faculty and staff, heads of functional departments and secondary schools, chairs of sub-union branches, and representatives of teachers and students, attended the ceremony.
