Students about to start a new semester must be confused by two recent announcements with conflicting rationales.
In one notice, the Ministry of Education voices its opposition to students living off-campus. It says that students should live on campus and schools should assign rooms to students from the same class.
Safety concerns regarding off-campus housing and the easy management of on-campus housing are cited as the major reasons for the decision.
Days later, a joint statement by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Public Security and the State Population Planning Commission said no school should expel students who get pregnant during school years.
Separately, the Ministry of Education claims it does not favor students to have children during school years.
While the joint statement has been acclaimed for putting a human face on the college administration, the off-campus housing ban has been fiercely criticized as a setback for students.
Setback is surely the right word since the ministry had imposed such a ban in June 2004, but lifted it in July 2005. Now the ban is back again.
Accepting student mothers is indeed a great leap forward considering that Chinese colleges used to have a zero tolerance policy for students getting married in school, regardless of whether they have reached the legal marriage age and met the Marriage Law requirements.
Just a few years ago, students that wedded during school years were simply expelled.
From showing no mercy to student marriage to ensuring the rights of student mothers, the government departments seem to realize that college students are human beings and they deserve the same rights as everyone else.
It is true that schools have the responsibility to care about students' study and life, but this does not give them the right to dictate every part of student life.
As Chinese citizens, students are entitled every right guaranteed by the Constitution and laws. No school regulation should conflict with them.
In banning off-campus housing, the education authorities seem to believe that college students, most aged 18-22, should be treated as children, rather than adults. Some administrators claim that students lack self-control and cannot make proper decisions for themselves.
This is surely not fair treatment for such a bright young generation. If these students didn't attend colleges, but worked in companies or joined the army, they would be treated as adults.
It is true that living on campus promotes a sense of belonging by being closely connected with other students. This could truly be a valuable part of the four-year college education.
Students living on campus also have easier access to vast school resources, such as libraries, computer rooms and various evening seminars.
But crowded dormitories, high noise levels, early electricity curfews and other strict codes also make dorms less attractive. At least dorms are not the right home for everyone.
Off-campus housing, meanwhile, offers a greater degree of freedom.
That is especially true for self-motivated students, students studying late for important tests or working late on academic projects.
Many students living off-campus also share rooms. They have to negotiate contracts, pay utilities and probably cook for themselves, all help prepare students to better manage their study and life.
In fact this also conforms to most schools' creed that students should be in touch with the real world as much as possible.
One of the motives for the housing ban is that education authorities hope this will help prevent students from cohabitation and having sex during school years.
But since students can now legally marry in schools, why should they be banned from having sex?
Reality tells us that this is wishful thinking. Banning sex among students has been and will be a mission impossible.
Surveys have shown that most college students falling in love will have sex, whether living on or off campus. This is probably why some schools have installed condom vending machines on campus or provide free condoms in school clinics, which tells students to have safe sex, rather than no sex.
What is critical in this argument is not the pros and cons of living on campus and off campus. It is that education authorities should get rid of its practice of imposing total bans as a solution to all problems.
It is like banning eating because it might cause choking, as the Chinese idiom says.
We all know this will not work.
The ban on off-campus residence mirrors the old thinking under China's planned economy decades ago. Everything was assigned or planned and no choice was given.
When you graduated, you were assigned a job, instead of looking for and choosing your own job. If you wanted to get married, or divorced, you had to get an employer's letter of consent, although it was none of his or her business.
Fortunately these were things of the past.
In today's diversified world, schools should show respect to students in making their own choices, whether it's about marriage, having children or housing.
After all, schools are not military barracks and students are not soldiers.
Recent reports have shown that many students are ignoring the ban and continue to rent off-campus houses. This is a clear answer to the ban.
Source:China Daily
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