Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) yesterday urged the Ministry of Education to review campus safety reporting procedures nationwide, following reports of student injuries on Sunday after a cross-strait music festival on National Taiwan University’s (NTU) campus was abruptly ended after protests.
NTU secretary-general Lin Ta-te (林達德) on Monday said the university had procedures in place to deal with protests, but the response of the school’s security personnel has room for improvement.
The University Act Reform Alliance called a news conference at the Legislative Yuan, inviting two DPP legislators, a ministry official and student representatives to discuss campus safety issues.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
“Due to confusing campus safety reporting procedures, students and teachers are often powerless when such incidents occur on campus. They also lack the means to figure out situations afterward,” alliance convener Chu Yen-chen (朱晏辰) said.
The NTU case is another example of universities excluding students from decisionmaking, he said.
Department of Student Affairs and Special Education specialist Cheng Wen-yao (鄭文瑤) said the ministry has a 24-hour campus safety center, which received the NTU administration’s report at about 9:23pm on Sunday.
However, DPP Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) said that the center might be useless, as it only received information about the protest four hours after the incident.
Wu said police have demonstrated divergent standards of law enforcement, as their response to the NTU incident was delayed, but very fast when students at Fu Jen Catholic University in New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang District (新莊) attempted to topple a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) on Feb. 28.
While the National Police Agency in July published new guidelines on when police can enforce the law on university campuses, they are inefficient, Wu said.
She demanded that the ministry push universities nationwide to review their standard operating procedures for hosting events and leasing venues, saying that it should submit a review in one week.
“As similar activities from China are increasing, protests initiated by pro-Taiwan independence and pro-unification groups are likely to increase as well,” Wu said, warning that more such incidents could occur at campuses.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS