[photopress:police_on_campus.jpg,full,alignright]Police stations are to be established inside the campuses of ten universities in Beijing, including Qinghua University and Renmin University. Police officers will carry out round-the-clock campus patrols and the stations will be open 24 hours. There will also be a CCTV-camera network which will cover the campus area.
The announcement has, understandably, raised concerns over students’ rights to privacy.
Su Jing, a postgraduate student at Qinghua, said, ‘I will feel much safer if there are police stations on campus and I hope thieves will be deterred on hearing this news.
‘But I think the number of police officers that will be stationed on campus is very important. If I see groups of officers patrolling the campus when I am on my way to the dining hall or library, I might feel nervous.’
A regulation from the Ministry of Education was released on July 6 requiring all university students to live in on-campus dormitories. The rule irritated some students with boyfriends or girlfriends.
Su believes the planned police presence could also interfere with relationships between students.
Han Mei, an associate professor at the Capital Normal University (CNU), one of the ten higher education institutions to have police stations, approved of the idea.
She said, ‘So many strangers are coming in and out of the campus every day, selling goods or decorating rooms in teachers’ apartments. All this coming and going makes me feel ill at ease.’
Source: China View