Southwest China's Kunming Medical College last week equipped some PC cameras in the corridors of all six of its dormitories to strengthen the safety on campus, reported Spring City Evening News, a local newspaper.

According to the paper, the college spent nearly 100,000 yuan (US$12,384.05) on these PC cameras. However, the safety measure has sparked disagreement from students citing privacy, especially female ones.

"It is understandable that PC cameras are used in classrooms," said a student. "But we just can't bear that they are now in our dormitory building corridors."

She went on to explain that the PC camera in one dormitory building corridor was placed just near the rest room. In other words, the girls, even when they are wrapped in robes or towels on their way to the shower, can be watched before entering the rest room.

The student said that PC cameras appeared on campus last year and there were more than 50 in all equipped above the gates of some classroom buildings and 29 multi-media classrooms.

In dormitory buildings, there are two cameras on each floor with one on each end. The monitoring room is on the first floor and building guardians can watch what is going on in the building around the clock via a TV.

Some female students complain about the "supervision," explaining it infringes upon their privacy. "The problem is that male guardians are on night duties," they said.

Aside from privacy concern, one graduate student cited support, saying, "We used to have personal belongings stolen in our dormitories but now things are better because of the PC cameras."

A college official also denied the accusation of privacy violation, citing two reasons: One, the dormitory building corridors are public spaces while the dormitory rooms are private ones, so they don't use PC cameras in dormitory rooms; and two, the PC cameras guarantee the safety of students' privacy in the way of keeping the dormitory buildings from strangers.

According to the college official, the PC cameras in dormitory buildings corridors are used solely for keeping watch on the buildings and the cameras are not linked with video recorders.

(China Daily December 23, 2005)