CAU’s first official event in the year of black rabbit, the 2023 New Year Kick-off Ceremony, was held at B501, Hall 310 (Centennial Hall).

The event had ▲ new year greetings ▲opening ▲pledge of allegiance ▲introducing the VIPs ▲president’s new year speech ▲raffles and ▲closing, in order. A new admin staff Kim Seo-Young of the International Affairs Team who began work in July 2022 hosted the event.

Faculty and staff who attended the ceremony entered the event hall after receiving a warm welcome from Chairman Park Yong-Hyun, President Park Sang-Gue, Executive Director Go Seok-Beom, Provost Paik Joon-Ki, Executive Vice President for Research Choo Jae-Bum, Executive Vice President for Administration Lee San-Ho, Executive Vice President for Anseong Campus Lee Hyung-Hwan, and Executive Vice President for Healthcare System Hong Chang-Kwun.

Through his new year speech, President Park Sang-Gue expressed his gratitude to faculty, staff, and students who have worked hard for the development of CAU.

President Park said, “The students’ achievement that made CAU proud was truly amazing. I would like to send my gratitude to students studying hard even in this difficult time. Also, I deeply thank the staff, who have worked diligently as administration professionals, supporting professors and guiding students. 

President added, “Now it’s time for CAU to unite as one and bear greater fruit on the foundation of our achievements.” He continued to list the fields that the university needs to put focus on.

During the COVID pandemic, CAU boasted its status as the 7th-rank research university in the country through BK21 FOUR project and laid the foundation for future development, including introducing the government-designated Artificial Intelligence Graduate School and establishing CAU Gwangmyeong Hospital. 

The president declared we would step forward from what we have achieved so far and strengthen the research capacity even more. “Our university has grown continuously every year, becoming a private research university that holds an annual research fund size of 200 billion won as of 2022. Now, we are left with the task to promote specialization in the science and technology field, reflecting the megatrends. I will raise the competitiveness of the university by strengthening research capacity and industry-academic cooperation. 

He also promised to commit to solving the spatial problem, saying “From this year, I will make more efforts to increase space utilization, including putting up a new building, in order to solve the task of improving the educational and research environment. Solving the campus spatial problem will help our university to develop its educational and research capacity.”

In addition to that, Park gave his word through his speech to pay much attention to Anseong campus, which will change its name to Da Vinci campus, so that it could be a brand-new campus that suits its new name and to establish practical measures for being a global campus, which will help CAU members dream bigger. He also promised in order to fulfill the university’s social responsibility, CAU will struggle to expand ESG management and realize carbon neutrality as soon as possible.

President Park concluded his new year speech by saying “I hope inspiration always be with you whatever you do, receiving the energy of the year of black rabbit, as black represents wisdom and rabbit is well-known for its cleverness. I also hope it could be the year that we could share hope together.”

The ceremony was wrapped up, as the new year speech was followed by a raffle where participants shared the joy of the new year together.