The Beijing-based Tsinghua University has told its first-year students to leave their computers at home. Dormitories are for study and they "need time to adjust to college life," the university said.
The students are living apart from their parents for the first time and might abuse their freedom and waste time on computer games and online chatting, a university spokesman said.
"In the absence of family structure and supervision, campus newcomers are easily addicted to computer chat rooms, roaming the Internet and playing video games," explained Zhou Yuehong, an associate director of Tsinghua's news centre.
Zhou went on to say that freshmen do not need to buy a personal computer because the university has provided plenty of computer facilities at the school library.
Students can get a free account for the electronic reading room which has 500 computers.
The university also mentioned its networking environment that is available in classrooms, offices, libraries and laboratories.
Many students say they understand the reason for the ban but some freshmen are against it and complain of being treated like middle-school students.
Wang Peng, a student of electrical engineering, says that 10 of the 33 students in his class had intended to buy a PC in their first year and could not understand the ban.
"It's unreasonable to tell us not to buy a PC. Not all the freshmen will indulge themselves online. Besides, having computers in the dorm is convenient and can make the dorm atmosphere more lively."
In some Chinese universities, certain courses and assignments have to be submitted electronically.
In response to Tsinghua's ban, some universities in south China appear less restrictive and more confident in student self-discipline.
Jinan University in Guangzhou believes that telling freshmen not to install PCs in dorms is not the best idea because of one major side effect.
"Unruly freshmen may turn to the 24-hour net cafes off campus and stay up all night online. Therefore, the ban may be useless and run contrary to our wishes," one member of the university dean's office explained.
He said that the university should lead freshmen away from computer games and provide broad computer access.
The university says that new students who already own a computer can bring it to dormitories with them. It also provides a campus network and Internet hookups in dorms for PC owners.
Both the writers are students from the
Beijing-based Tsinghua Universtiy
(China Daily Hongkong Edition WANG XIN and ZHANG HAIGANG 09/26/2002)
