Teachers, classmates, alumni, and comrades:

The new year has begun and, with the ringing of bells, we have said goodbye to the past year and that phase of our lives. We have also welcomed the brand-new 13th Five-year Plan. At this annual turning point, and this historical phase, and new starting point for Shanxi University, on behalf of our school's Party committee and administration I would like to send our best wishes to teachers, staff, retired comrades, relatives and alumni in China and abroad!

Time really flies. And, from the perspective of the school's 100-year history and the grand development of our university, the now completed '12th Five-year Plan' will go down in history and our annals for its significance. We need to seize this unusual opportunity, with the country's higher education rejuvenation plan for middle and western parts of China and become one of 14 candidates for improving education overall in the middle and western parts of China and develop to a higher phase. We need to strengthen and improve our Party work in the spirit of the general secretary, Xi Jinping, as indicated in his speeches. We have carried out educational activities and learned from them and have had a good effect from the ‘Three Stricts and Three Steadies' education policy, providing solid political backing for school reforms and development. We've done the planning work for strengthening the school overall, improved our discipline professionally and strengthened our methods for developing talent. Our education and teaching quality keep improving, the introduction of talent and teaching teams has seen a major breakthrough, our science, innovation and social services have improved a great deal, school operations and have been improved, and the school has a prosperous outlook.

Looking back, at the end of the 12th Five-year plan, at the past year, we can see that we have combined the power of our teachers and students to face any difficulties and challenges, and have abundant educational accomplishment s to show for it. We reformed our method of cultivating talent, improved the development of our undergraduates and completed our plan for graduate student development. We have newly added two majors at the bachelor's level, two province-level graduate education centers, and have an employment rate for graduates that is above 85 percent. We have greatly improved scientific research, with three cooperation-and-innovation centers, including one for Optics, for provincial institutions, and our chemistry department has ranked among the top 1-percent in ESI for three consecutive years. We are building a Shanxi Low Carbon Energy Institute by integrating our resources in the Shanxi Technological Innovation City, which has gained the recognition of the provincial Party and provincial government. We have also strengthened our school by introducing 93 PhDs, 16 members of the provincial '100-Talent Plan', two top research teams, lead by Prof Wu Changxin, a senior researcher at Cambridge University, and Chen Xuyuan, a member of China's '1,000-Talent Plan', and many talented people from across Shanxi. The school constitution has been amended and reviewed by the Education Department and Scholarship Committee to achieve a more modern university system. A feasibility report for the Dongshan Campus has been approved, laying a solid foundation for construction work and a year of effort has injected new vigor into reforms and our overall strength, providing more power for the 13th Five-year Plan and new space for long-term development.

Time has brought a splendor to the past and limitless hopes for the future and, under the 13th Five-year Plan has given institutions of higher learning a loftier mission in national and regional strategic development. We need to follow the spirit of the 18th Partyl Congress and Central Committee and the ideas of Xi Jinping in a resolute way, and follow the requirements of the provincial Party committee's 'five sentences'. With the ideas of innovation, greening, and openness as a guide, we should follow China's 'four comprehensive' strategies the province's 'six developments' opportunities Party responsibilities to govern strictly. The ultimate task is to develop talented, moral people and focus on quality and build 'one university in one province' to improve innovation at our school and focus with regional characteristics. Through reforms, we should make our discipline more professional, improve our teaching level, improve our ability to govern the school and contribute more to society. Basically, we need to make our school a top-level research-oriented university with regional characteristics to completely revitalize Shanxi University.

This new starting point calls for confidence and strength in our mission, responsibility, and goal and under 'the 13th Five-year Plan' we need to reform and develop our school along Party lines and raise the level of our Party work. We need to improve our competitiveness in line with a principle of 'discipline to be first-class'. We need to combine discipline, scientific research, cooperation, innovation and social service to develop all-round top talented personnel. We need to coordinate our innovation and resources to improve innovation and social services to provide scientific support for regional economic and social development, while facing the scientific frontier and national demands, as well as demands for our philosophical, social science and intellectual plans and the demands of an innovative 'coal and non-coal' Shanxi. We need innovation in our train of thought about human resources, a leading talent plan, and top teams of teachers. We need to make the best use of the functions and layout of our campus, get to work on the Dongshan campus, build a better site for teachers and students, guarantee the workability of the public service system to provide support for the teaching and scientific research of our school.

Down-to-earth practice means better jobs and means splendor. The role of higher education is mighty and the future of this 100-year-old school is splendid. Let us take this opportunity to forge ahead with determination for a better future for Shanxi University!

Best wishes to all of you in the coming year!

Party Secretary Shi Shuai

President Jia Suotang

December 31, 2015