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Academy Mission

Academy Mission
Fo Guang University is a forest university and a green university where "the school is in the mountains, the buildings are in the forest, and the people are in the painting". It promotes university college education based on the concept of "modern practice of traditional colleges" to cultivate students with good character, life cultivation and modern citizenship qualities; to enhance students' good knowledge and skills, and to have social responsibility and practical spirit of public concern. The social responsibility of a university must be based on an in-depth understanding, exploration and analysis of public policy issues involving various disciplines, thereby enhancing the social care concepts and social practice capabilities of college faculty and students.
The college-style education and counseling platform and operating mechanism established by the School of Social Sciences of our university is the "Chengzheng College". The name of this college implies the purpose and goal of "clear mind, sound mind, social justice, and helping others with justice". It not only conforms to the educational philosophy of Fo Guang University of "righteousness, justice, compassion and enlightenment", and follows the spirit of "leaving wisdom for yourself and leaving the university in the world", but also conforms to the establishment purpose of the School of Social Sciences.
Currently, the School of Social Sciences of our university has established departments including the Department of Sociology and Social Work, the Department of Public Affairs, and the Department of Psychology. Each of these three departments has its own characteristics as well as commonalities. They all involve clarifying the deep theoretical implications of personal psychology and social public phenomena; interpersonal interactions, satisfying the eternal curiosity of human beings about their own minds, and understanding the meaning of life; they also involve the interaction and development between the country, society and local communities, and individuals, and explore the possible future trends of social development, thereby providing solutions to social problems and enhancing social life.
The School of Social Sciences uses "Chengzheng Academy" as a platform and mechanism for facilitating and integrating the interaction between teachers and students. It was founded by the Fo Guang Education Group at Fo Guang University and has the educational philosophy of Humanistic Buddhism. At the same time, Fo Guang University promotes "modern practice of traditional academies" and has the "modern practice" connotation of the spirit of traditional Chinese academies. Because the establishment of modern universities originated in the West and the concept of modern universities originated from the Enlightenment period, universal values ​​are also integrated into the Fo Guang Academy education system. The mission of the university is not only to enable learners to improve their ability to integrate knowledge and experience, but also to provide "imagination space" and intellectual vision for the construction of future human society. Universities have become places for producing and transmitting truthful knowledge, and their knowledge purposes are both practical and functional, integrating the "golden mean" of mutual adjustment between humanism and utilitarianism.
The word "Chengzheng" comes from "The Biography of Xun Yi in the Book of Jin": "Comprehensively examine the name and reality, and the customs are clear and correct." The original meaning is "to conduct a comprehensive assessment of things to see whether their names and reality are consistent." Here, "Chengzheng" means "clear and upright." The character  has the meanings of “clear and transparent water” and “to make clear”, while the character has the meanings of “impartial”, “in accordance with the rules” and “in accordance with reason”.
The "Cheng" in "Chengzheng Academy" has the meaning of "knowing one's mind and seeing one's nature", knowing oneself, understanding oneself, and thus affirming oneself, as discussed in the Great Learning: "The way of the Great Learning is to manifest the illustrious virtue, to love the people, and to rest in the highest good."
It is also said: "Only after understanding things can one attain ultimate knowledge; only after attaining ultimate knowledge can one have sincere intentions; only after sincere intentions can one have a righteous heart; only after a righteous heart can one cultivate oneself; only after cultivating oneself can one have a harmonious family; only after a harmonious family can one have a well-governed country; only after a well-governed country can the world be at peace." Focusing on the micro level of individual character and self-cultivation, and then expanding to the macro level of social and public affairs issue governance, "beginning with the end in mind" rather than losing sight of the main goal. The Department of Psychology and the Department of Sociology and Social Work of our college have planned their programs as well as the college's cross-disciplinary programs, namely the planned helping work program.

The so-called "righteousness" means "benefiting all living beings" and achieving fairness, justice and public interests through sincere social practice. For example, the "Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra" talks about the Eightfold Rightness, namely right view, right thinking, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. "The Book of Changes·Kun·Wenyan" says "to be upright and just", and "The Analects of Confucius" says "to be just and just as long as one has the Tao". Therefore, the program planning of the Department of Public Affairs and the Department of Sociology and Social Work of our college, as well as the college's cross-disciplinary programs, include plans to innovate social governance programs.
Based on this, Chengzheng College announced four major goals for cultivating college students:
(a) A clear mind: knowing one’s true nature, being aware of oneself, thinking rationally, and being objective and neutral. It aims to enhance the college students' ability of self-awareness, self-understanding, introspection, and awareness; to explore social phenomena and public issues with an objective, rational, and value-neutral attitude, and to propose effective governance of public issues arising from individuals and society with a scientific and impartial spirit.
(2) Mental health: empathy, tolerance, appreciation of differences, democratic respect, wisdom and courage. The aim is to enhance the empathy and tolerance of college students, teach them to tolerate dissidents, respect diversity, and appreciate differences in a democratic society, and cultivate students' moral courage to wisely solve their own problems and public issues.
(III) Social justice: social care, public welfare orientation, fairness and justice, and practical action. The aim is to cultivate college students with humanistic and social care, a spirit of compassion and generosity, a spirit of integrity and selflessness, a spirit of self-discipline and moral integrity, promote a public interest perspective that is in line with social justice, and enhance their ability to practice social practices and local care.
(iv) Helping others with justice: be fair and reasonable, help yourself and others will help you, help others who have achieved something, and benefit all living beings (have achieved something and others have achieved something). It aims to cultivate the students' sense of fairness and equality, to develop independent personality, optimism, enterprising spirit, justice and fairness, and to enhance their soft and hard power. Under the guidance of the concept of fairness and justice, through social practice, the goal of effectively achieving social fairness and justice can be achieved.
The School of Social Sciences of our university is established based on global development trends and aims to teach students the latest life characteristics and knowledge. At the same time, it combines the research of Lanyang area and Fo Guang Shan religious group, hoping to make contributions to the local area and society. The aim of the academy is to cultivate and train young people who have a high degree of concern for the country and society. We hope that after graduation, they can contribute to the country and society with their expertise and give full play to the academy's pragmatic spirit of governing the country and being useful to the world.
The College fully combines college-style education and counseling, with the College and the College relying on, complementing and reinforcing each other. The development areas of the college are specifically in the research and industry-university connection areas of "cross-domain capabilities"; the research and industry-university cooperation areas of "human care"; and the research and industry-university practice areas of "Yilan Think Tank". The college aims to cultivate talents with broad vision, enrich students' humanistic and social qualities, and make them social leaders with all-round personalities.
The educational and counseling functions of "Chengzheng Academy" are to enhance the care spirit of the academy's teachers and students towards the human society, and their ability to practice righteousness, justice, compassion and enlightenment. It is committed to social care and public services; at the same time, it pays attention to public issues from the micro-level of personal psychology to the macro-level of social trends. Ultimately, through the training of wise teachers and the cultivation of talents with the goal of "applying knowledge to the world", the students will receive diversified, all-round learning guidance and value-added transformation in accordance with their talents and aptitudes, in order to transform themselves and cultivate multiplication people with high-quality soft power and core competitiveness.