Padang Bulan Campus
Padang Bulan Campus is the University of Sumatera Utara’s main campus which located in Padang Bulan Sub District , District of Medan Baru and has been operated since 1957. Previously, some Faculties in USU utilized several buildings which dispersed in some area in Medan like Jalan Seram, Jalan Cik Ditiro, Jalan Sempali and Jalan Gandhi. Initially, Padang Bulan Campus was located in suburban area of Medan, however, with the development of Medan, now the campus is located in the center of the city. This campus has an area of 122 acreage with an academic zone of 100 acreage. Padang Bulan Campus can be easily reach from the city center or from the airport, it is 15km distance or 20 minutes by taxi from the city center (Merdeka Square) or around 30 minutes using public transport. The distance from Polonia International Airport to USU Campus is about 6km or 15 minutes by taxi.
Kwala Bekala Campus
The increasing number of students in the last decade, where more than 30.000 population in 2007 and estimated to increase double in 2020, has motivated USU to expand the campus area. Accordingly, a new campus located in Kwala Bekala has been prepared as a second campus, which is 15km away from Padang Bulan Campus, with an area of 300 acreage or three times wider than Padang Bulan Campus. Now, the area already been fenced with a surrounding wall and some of them are used as an arboretum-educating forest, oil palm seedbed, botanical garden, animal husbandry and dam building.
Kwala Bekala Campus will be developed as a humanist campus ( pleasant, safe, cozy and pedestrian friendly), energy saving, healthy and environment friendly, as well as will express the USU vision which is “U for I” (University for Industry). Besides, this campus is also planned to accommodate academic activities, social and industry in:
(1) Academic and Integrated Laboratory Zone
(2) Supporting Zone (club house, commercial, public and social facilities)
(3) Arboretum Zone-Educating Forest
(4) Oil palm seedbed Zone
(5) Animal Husbandry Zone.
The layout of building and environmental plan, will make the physical development of the campus will be restrained in harmony, will not worsened the environmental quality.
History
The city’s history is interesting. When it was founded by Guru Patimpus, a descendant of Raja Singa Mahraja who governed Negeri Bakerah in the Highlands of Karo, in around 1590 Medan was just a small village called Medan Village, or Kampung Medan, and this in turn became present day Medan. Because Kampung Medan sits on Tanah Deli (Land of Deli), Kampung Medan is also referred as Medan-Deli. The original location of Kampung Medan is an area where the Deli River meets Babura River. The Batak Karo community were the first settlers in Medan. Later the king of Aceh, Sultan Iskandar Muda, ruled the region and the resulting kingdom of Deli prospered.
Medan did not experience significant development until the 1860s, when the Dutch colonialists began clearing the land for tobacco plantations. Medan quickly became a center of government and commercial activity, dominating development of Indonesia's western region. Deli tobacco was well accepted for its quality for cigar wrapper. From 1658, the Dutch ruled the region and Medan became the capital of the northern province of Sumatra in 1915 and was declared a city in 1918.
Demography
After Jakarta and Surabaya, Medan is the third largest city in Indonesia. Medan is unique in many ways and especially for its multi-cultural society living that lives in harmony. The city’s population is dominated with some ethnics : Malay, Javanese, Bataknese and Chinese. In 2005, the population is 2.036.016 people. Mostly in age group of 0-19 years old and 20-39 years old (41% and 37.8% from total population consecutively). The most congested districts are in Medan Perjuangan, Medan Area and East Medan. In 2004, life expectancy for men is 69 years old and for women is 71 years old. Historically, in 1918 Medan were occupied with 43.826 people, which were consisted of 409 European descendant, 35.009 Indonesian, 8.269 Chinese and 139 from other Middle East races.
Many old buildings in Medan still retain Dutch architecture like the Old City Hall, Medan Post Office, Water Tower (which is the icon of Medan) and Hanging Bridge (Titi Gantung)- a bridge above the railroad. Beside that, there are still some other historic buildings like Maimun Palace, The Great Mosque (Mesjid Raya), and Tjong A Fie’s house in Jl. Jend. Ahmad Yani (Kesawan).
Transportation
One of the unique features of Medan is the motorized becaks that are found almost everywhere. Unlike traditional becaks, a motorized becaks can take its passenger anywhere in the city. There are also more common transport like taxis and minibuses, known as sudako.
Railroad tracks connect Medan to Tanjungpura on the northwest, to port of Belawan on the north, and to Binjai-Tebing Tinggi-Pematang Siantar and Tebing Tinggi-Kisaran-Rantau Prapat on the southeast. The seaport of Belawan is about 20 km to the north. Polonia International Airport is located in the heart of the city. Kuala Namu International Airport is a new airport under construction and is due to replace Polonia in 2009.
Belmera toll highway connects Medan to Belawan and Tanjungmorawa. A plan for the extension of this highway to Tebing Tinggi and to Binjai has been completed, and the central government is currently seeking investors to build the extension.
Sister Cities
Some cities in Asia have reached the agreement to set up the Sister-City relationship with Medan such as: Penang, Malaysia (1984), Ichikawa, Japan (1989), Kwangju, South Korea (1997) and Chengdu, China. Some cooperation between the cities had been made in the field of economy, urban development, trade, social and education such as: students exchange between Medan and Ichikawa, organizing “Sister City Trade Fair” between Medan, Kwangju and Penang. This cooperation is expected to increase the trade and investment in the city as well as to broadening the market.
The Province of North Sumatera
North Sumatera is a Province in Sumatera Island, it borders Aceh Province on the northwest, Riau and West Sumatra provinces on the southeast. It is a hometown for Bataknese ethnic who lived in the mountain and Malay ethnic who lived in coastal area in the east. There are others ethnics also such as : Javanese, Nias ethnic, Mandailing ethnic and Chinese. North Sumatera is the fourth largest population for province in Indonesia after West Java, East Java and Middle Java with around 12,83 million people in 2007. It has 419 islands, Nias and Batu are the main archipelago.
The economy, which has been based on rubber, tea, coffe, cocoa, palm, coconut, cinnamon and tobacco plantations for a long time, has now been expanded with the big Asahan aluminium project and multiple service-companies, and belongs to the strongest in the country. North Sumatera also rich with natural gas in Tandam andBinjai and oil in Pangkalan Brandan. Tourism thrives mainly on the picturesque beauty of Lake Toba and the Karo highlands. There are also two national park in North Sumatera, Gunung Leuser National Park and Batang Gadis National Park.
