Dear ODTÜ members and dear ODTÜ Friends,
We have completed 59 academic years since our university started education in 1956. This October we are starting the 60th Academic Year of ODTÜ. We will celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi on May 27, 2016. As the establishment law of our university was passed on Friday May 27, we celebrate ODTÜ Day on the last Friday of May every year. Next year, the last Friday of the month, when we celebrate our Anniversary, is on the 27 May again.
In the period between its establishment and 60th academic year, Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi has continued its efforts and challenge to “become better”. It has always been an innovative, pioneering, venturesome university that preserves its academic values and basic principles, and gives confidence to the society. It has graduated thousands of alumni, whose worldwide achievements and contribution to the society we are proud of; and it has been a university whose graduates have always been proud. Its continuously increasing success in the areas of education, scientific research, collaboration with industry, and community service, has set an example in many fields. It has continued its leadership by introducing many innovations to our country and higher education system. On international platforms it has continuously increased its position and prestige.
As Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, we consider protecting humans, nature, and democracy as important as the education we provide, the scientific research we engage in, and the Technologies we develop. Therefore, we have always defended human rights, gender equality, basic freedoms, secularity, rule of law, and scientific truths. The ODTÜ Forest that we have planted where there was nothing, and Lake Eymir that we protect with great care are the result of the responsibility we feel towards nature as well as towards the society. We know that, in the long run, our contribution to the development and well-being of the society will be measured in terms of the extent to which we claim our responsibilities and our success in fulfilling each of these.
Adhering to these basic principles, we as members of the ODTÜ community, will continue to use all our effort to increase our contribution to science and society in the coming period as well.
Throughout this special 2015-2016 academic year, we will organize events special to the “ODTÜ 60th Year”. While we celebrate our 60th Year together with art-sports-culture-science events, we will evaluate and record our university’s position in its 60th Year with panel, workshop and conference events as well as special publications. We will allocate some of the “ODTÜ 60th Year” events to determine the “ODTÜ Vision” for the coming period. In meetings where we will come together with our members, students, and alumni and the representatives of the ODTÜ Development Foundation, the ODTÜ Technopolis, and relevant public, industrial, and non-governmental organizations, we will discuss the strategic priorities of our university for the coming years. The outcomes of these activities will provide input for the period after the ODTÜ 2011-2016 Strategic Plan.
We have opened the website http://60yil.metu.edu.tr as an interface for information-communication related to “ODTÜ 60th Year” events. Over this website you can obtain information about ODTÜ and 60th Year events; and you can submit your questions, suggestions, memories and photos. Therefore, I hope that you will follow and use the 60yil.odtu.edu.tr web site.
A logo was designed to symbolize our university’s 60th Year and to be used in the events organized within the 60th year. You can access information about the “ODTÜ 60th Year Logo” and the design competition on our website.
Our academic-administrative units, Student Clubs, Alumni Associations, and Foundation organizations will also be able to use the “ODTÜ 60th Year Logo” in the events they organize throughout the October 2015-December 2016 period to announce the 60th Year of our university. The Logo use guide is available on the web site as well.
Hoping to be all together in the “ODTÜ 60th Year” events, “Many Happy Returns ODTÜ!”
Sincerely,
Prof. Ahmet Acar
President