It is “not appropriate” for students to wear flip-flops at graduation ceremonies, National Taiwan Normal University said on Saturday, after a photograph showed one of its students dressed that way.
The controversy arose after a photo from the university’s College of Sciences commencement ceremony on Friday posted by a professor showed a student on stage for the tassel-turning ceremony wearing flip-flops.
Students today have become too casual and show little regard for how they dress, the professor said on Facebook.
The university issued a statement stressing that commencement ceremonies were solemn occasions and that it was “not appropriate” to wear sandals or slippers under graduation gowns, which are meant to convey honor.
The school had issued a dress code for graduation ceremonies, but respected its individual colleges and would not try to establish unified regulations, it said.
The school also showed empathy for the student, suggesting that his shoes might have all gotten soaked by the past week’s rain and he might have had no choice but to wear flip-flops.
“[Wearing flip-flops] was inappropriate, but we do not have the heart to reprimand him,” the school said.
Another professor several days earlier lashed out at students for showing “scant respect” for teachers.
Former National Chi Nan University president Lee Chia-tung (李家同) was the speaker at National Quemoy University’s graduation ceremony on June 10, but he was displeased when he noticed that students entered and exited the school’s gymnasium at will, leaving many seats empty half way through his speech.
Lee demanded that the students “act like university students.”
His comment was echoed by some netizens, who said “character education” needed to be strengthened or society would be weakened.
However, some students disagreed, explaining that it had been an especially hot day and the gymnasium was like a big oven, and they had been worried they might experience a heat stroke.
National Quemoy University president Huang Chi (黃奇) defended students’ early departures, saying there had been more than 1,000 attendees at the venue and the air conditioning units had been inadequate.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai