Our reporter Sun Xuemei - Yesterday, students from the Daxing campus of Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture reflected that the school organized a "donate and plant love trees" activity. Although it was under the name of voluntary participation, students were forced to donate money. In response, the school authorities stated that the school would not force students to donate money and had always emphasized voluntary donations. The situation reflected by the students "might be due to individual classes engaging in competition," requiring all students to donate money.
"Although it was said to be voluntary, the class leader collected money individually, and everyone had to pay!" Yesterday morning, many students from the Daxing campus of Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture reflected that the school's Youth League Committee held an activity titled "Donate and Plant Love Trees to Beautify the New Campus," requiring each student to donate more than 5 yuan, with the class leaders collecting on behalf of the class. Some students questioned, "Donation should be a voluntary act of kindness, but the school uses this method, which is equivalent to mandatory donation." A student mentioned that there are more than 1700 people at the Daxing campus, and if everyone donates 5 yuan, the total amount would be nearly ten thousand yuan.
According to available information, the Youth League Committee of Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture organized mobilization among the Daxing campus, various secondary colleges, the Student Union, and the Graduate Student Union for the tree-donation activity for the new campus in early March this year. According to the information on the Youth League Committee's website of the school, as of March 31, more than 3200 students have participated in the activity.
Teacher Yang from the office of the Daxing campus of Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture stated that the school indeed organized a tree-donation activity where some people donated one or two hundred yuan, while others donated over a thousand yuan. However, the school repeatedly emphasized that the donations were voluntary with no limit on the amount. Regarding the students' doubts, Teacher Yang mentioned that the mandatory donation might be due to certain classes having problems in their promotion efforts, "or some classes may require all students to donate out of competitiveness." Teacher Yang added that for classes that enforce donations, the school will criticize and educate the responsible persons after verifying the facts.
A staff member from the Beijing Municipal Education Commission stated that schools can organize voluntary donation activities as long as they are within a reasonable range. The organization of students donating 5 yuan for planting trees by Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture is within a reasonable range, but it must be based on voluntariness. Currently, the Education Commission does not have relevant penalty regulations for mandatory donations by schools, and students can refuse to pay if they encounter such situations.
(Editor: SN021)