More than 20 students representing universities from across the country yesterday staged a demonstration outside the Ministry of Education, (MOE) demanding that the ministry revoke school regulations that they claim violate Republic of China (ROC) law and the Constitution.
“We are very disappointed with the ministry’s response to our demands,” Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆), a spokesman for the Student Rights Investigation Group, said in front of the ministry.
During the protest, Yang Chih-chung (楊志忠), a ministry official, took a petition from the students and promised the ministry would “urge universities to review their student regulations.”
Photo: CNA
The students are upset that as many as 70 percent of the nation’s 149 universities and colleges still pre-screen articles written by students before publishing them in school newspapers or magazines, 45 percent still have restrictions on student gatherings on campus and most still impose nighttime curfews on student dormitories.
Following the release of an annual student rights survey report completed by the Student Rights Investigation Group and issued on Tuesday, student representatives from schools, including National Taiwan University, National Chen Kung University, National Tsing Hua University, National University of Kaohsiung and National Chengchi University, rallied outside the ministry to deliver their petition yesterday morning.
Some of the more serious restrictions on student activities include stipulations that students must not organize events that “incite student movements” and that demonstrations cannot be held on campus, Lin said.
“Apparently, more than 20 years after martial law was lifted, there are still some transitional justice issues left to be solved on campus,” Lin said.
While this is not the first time students have complained about these issues, they have remained unresolved for years because the ministry maintains that school regulations are an integral element of university autonomy and should therefore be handled by the schools themselves. As such, they have urged students to file their complaints with the relevant school authorities.
“We will wait one month for the ministry’s response and if it fails to respond positively to our demands we will file a complaint with the Control Yuan,” Lin said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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