The Student Affairs Office (SAO) recently gave away free bananas to welcome students returning to a new semester after the Chinese New Year holiday. The new campus also saw the first group of students attending the International Business Law course in the Central Teaching Building.
Braving the chilly, rainy day at the start of the new semester, SAO colleagues got to the current campus early to get ready behind the tables with 600 bananas carefully arranged in neat rows. “These bananas just got here this morning, so they are super fresh,” said an SAO colleague as she cheerfully handed the bananas to the students. Dean of Students Dr. Peter Yu says they thought about buying apples and oranges, but in the end they decided on bananas because bananas are more convenient to eat.
Dr. Yu hopes that small surprises like this helps to build a sense of belonging in the students. “I hope that when our graduates look back to their days at UM, warm memories like this come to their minds,” says Dr. Yu. Students welcomed the activity, saying that they still remembered vividly the free ice cream from SAO last year. Rector Wei Zhao also showed up to welcome the students.
Bananas are not the only free treat to greet the students. All facilities on the campus have resumed full operation, including the free shuttle bus commuting between the Rua de Lagos bus stop and UM’s current campus as well as the all-night shuttle bus commuting between the current campus and the new campus. The university canteen has reopened with a new look, and students showed up in droves on the first day after its opening (more details on the new canteen on page 3.)
Starting this semester, some courses will be conducted on the new campus. Rector Wei Zhao and Vice Rector Simon Ho made a special trip to the new campus on the day of the first class to witness a new chapter in the university’s history. They encouraged the students to cherish the opportunity and study hard on the new campus. A postgraduate student surnamed Yu who was among the first students to attend classes on the new campus says that it takes only ten minutes or so to walk to the classrooms in the Central Teaching Building from the Postgraduate Students House, which is very convenient. At this moment, the inside of the new campus is accessible on a limited scale because some post-delivery works are still ongoing. According to Registry, courses that are conducted on the new campus in this semester are mainly general education courses, such as English, Portuguese and computer. All these courses will take place in the Central Teaching Building, which can hold approximately 3,000 students at the same time.
