On January 25th 2024 at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, a Faculty Working Meeting was held. The meeting discussed strategies for achieving Performance Achievement Targets, while the location of the meeting was in rooms 707 and 709 on the 7th floor of the Soegondo building. Dean of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Prof. Dr. Setiadi, S.Sos., M.Si., directly chaired the meeting which was attended by all lecturers at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences for approximately 4 hours starting from 9.00 am. The meeting was held in a hybrid manner and was attended by a total of 154 lecturers as meeting participants.

The Performance Achievement Target itself contains many things regarding the performance of each faculty’s resources, some of which are about things that the faculty has, the growth that is occurring, and what needs to be improved. Strengthening partnership cooperation in tridharma activities involving lecturers and students, developing an integrated innovation ecosystem, as well as increasing recognition of the excellence of study programs at national and international levels were also important points in the meeting. There are 30 indicators mandated directly by universities to faculties. Furthermore, the mandate giver who is the Chancellor of Gadjah Mada University, Prof. Dr. Ova Emilia, M.Med.Ed., Sp.OG(K), Ph.D., through the Planning Directorate will monitor and evaluate the achievement of performance indicator targets periodically/every quarter.

The research results of the Pakpak Bharat survey and excavation team through its important heritage of mejan (an ancient relic) have been disseminated to all stakeholders in Pakpak Bharat Regency, North Sumatra, on Monday, 18 December 2023 in Salak, Pakpak Bharat, North Sumatra. Mejan is an ancestral heritage of Pakpak Bharat in the form of statues that are special and unique because they are not found in other regions and therefore deserve to be a proud identity of the Pakpak Bharat community.

The research team coordinator, Dr Mimi Savitri, M.A. outlined the importance of knowledge of the past life of the Pakpak Bharat community related to the existence of mejan. According to her, mejan is a marker, centre, or source of Pakpak people’s life in the past, because the social, economic, cultural, ritual, and gender equality of Pakpak Bharat’s ancestors is known from the remaining mejan that exist up to this moment. One important thing in studying the lives of Pakpak Bharat’s ancestors through mejan is the fact that their ancestor always embracing peace as the upmost value. Peace is one of the most crucial factor on successful development of a nation, which happened to be the goal in SDG’S 16.

Regional Secretary of Pakpak Bharat, Jalan Berutu, S.Pd. M.M. who was present representing the Regent expressed his appreciation and gratitude to the Research Team from the Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, UGM, because this collaboration is seen as a major step in the preservation of Pakpak Bharat Cultural Heritage. The cooperation between the two parties is an effort to achieve SDG’s 17 in the form of partnership to achieve goals. He also stated that this dissemination is important for determining the next development strategy of Pakpak Bharat in order to improve people’s welfare. This is in accordance with SDG’s 1 related to life without poverty and SDG’s 12 in the form of efforts to improve the quality of the environment in order to support the implementation of Development.