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Taiwan Works Hard to Prevent Spread of Virus; Receives Praise in NCCU Foreign Student Video

Date : 2020-07-06 Department : Secretariat
【Article by the Office of International Cooperation】
Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, students have faced a number of virus prevention measures: a delay to the start of the semester, more robust curfew rules, remote learning drills, and so on. Yet for the almost 200 exchange students currently at NCCU, this experience has been one of the most memorable of their lives.

The Office of International Cooperation has encouraged foreign students on campus to make videos about COVID-19 prevention, and to send these videos to teachers, classmates, and family back home as a way to reassure friends and family that they are safe and well. The video #fightwithnccu was completed in just one work day, and featured Spanish teacher Mario Santander Olivan – from the NCCU College of Foreign Languages and Literature – and a diverse group of students from countries such as Indonesia, Korea, Belgium, and Italy. International students who had never experienced a pandemic took the chance to share their thoughts with those overseas. They expressed how lucky they felt to be living in Taiwan, commended the government and university for swiftly and actively adopting virus prevention measures, and assured their families that they were safe, emphasizing how well they had been looked after in Taiwan. Exchange student Guillaume Michaux, from Belgium, was impressed by how teachers instantly adjusted their method of administering classes: “I'm very lucky. As soon it was confirmed that I had to do two weeks of Health Management, my teacher immediately changed the format to online classes, which worked out really well.” “The school really looked after us – they handled our visa extensions and even gave us medical masks to wear” said exchange student Lorenzo Gaspare Dugnani, from Italy, who highly commended NCCU's response.

NCCU administration issued virus prevention news through every available channel, ensuring that international students quickly received first-hand information for the prevention of COVID-19. Serving concurrently as the dormitory director of i-House, Olivan noted that the university took precautions at the very start of the outbreak, strengthening the dormitory curfew and administrative rules, and publishing the latest COVID-19 information updates in English on the dormitory bulletin board, via email, and through the COVID-19 Prevention mobile app. “I am extremely grateful to the students for complying with all the additional rules.”

At the end of the video, NCCU vice president Chao Yi accompanies Olivan and the foreign studies as they shout the slogan “Faced with COVID-19, let’s be united!” in English and their respective mother tongues. It is a call for embracing a positive attitude even when faced with a pandemic. They emphasize that the effort to quell the virus is not yet over, and that students and teachers must unite and collectively participate in campus-based virus prevention.
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