On 10 November 2012, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Suchin Visavateeranon, Acting President of STOU and Vice-President for Academic Affairs, presided over a ceremony for the customary donation of monks' robes for the Thot Kathin festival at Wat Chumphon Rangsan, a third-class royal temple founded in 1820 to commemorate a successful battle with Burmese occupiers of Chumphon. The Thot Kathin festival, which comes at the end of the three-month Buddhist Rains Retreat and consists of the presentation of new robes to monks, is an important merit-making occasion for Buddhists in Thailand and neighboring countries. As this was a Royal Kathin Ceremony, STOU was donating the robes in the name of the King. In preparation for the ceremony, STOU collected donations from staff, students, alumni and the general public and offered these donations, totaling 1,589,841 baht, to the temple.