Jiujiang Financial and Economic College
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Note: This article's NPOV is disputed.
The Jiujiang Financial and Economic College (九江财经高等专科学校) is a minor college in Jiujiang, northern Jiangxi Province in China.
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[edit] History
In October of 1980, the 10th military meeting of the Central Military Committee eliminated the department of enterprise administration, a rear-service school of the People's Liberation Army, and replaced it with a cadre school for enterprise. On September 21, 1981, the PLA Enterprise Cadre School was established.
In September of 1982, the school began its first training classes. At the beginning of 1983, the Jiangxi provincial government brought the enrollment plan of the school into line with the state plan.
In March of 1994, the National Education Committee approved the establishment of the Jiujiang Financial and Economic College, the added name Military Supplies Finance and Economics College of the PLA added in April of the same year. The two names have since been used in parallel.
The Jiujiang Financial and Economic College was given a green light to integrate with several other colleges in Jiujiang under the name Jiujiang Institute in December of 2001. Final approval for the merger was finally achieved in May of 2004 with all staffing issues decided and the Institute fully accredited to issue bachelor's degrees just in time for the first trial degree programs to graduate.
[edit] Student Riots
Note: This section's NPOV is suspicious due to lack of attribution.
In the summer of 2005, the Jiujiang Institute was the location of a serious student riot. According to students, the riots were sparked off by anger over 'additional fees' that had been levied on them by college leaders for the use of basic utilities. Official accounts however state that the riots were the work of external agitators.
The official account is the usual form of "face saving" that is common in Chinese government when something bad happens. It is not believed by anybody; neither the students nor the population at large (and certainly not the administrators themselves) seriously believe that there were external agitators at work. The reality of the situation is a bad clash of expectations and despair.
The leadership of the college from its inception to approximately five months before the riots was noted for intense levels of corruption. The president, , was well-connected both in Jiangxi province's educational authorities and within the PLA itself (given that the college was once a PLA training college for managers). As is usual in China, this level of 关系 (Guanxi) allows people a great deal of freedom in their dealings. This freedom is usually expressed in the form of official corruption.
One of the many forms of corruption that Jiujiang Institute was steeped in at the time was an incremental fees scam in which students and parents were told about a set of fees to come to the university, but then fees would be attached for mandatory activities throughout the year. As an example of such a fee, the then-college had a calendar made to commemorate its elevation into "institute" levels (at the time not completed, but the process had been started). Photographs were taken of the campus, digitally manipulated to make it look nicer (sky was cleared, trees added, etc.) and a cheap desk calendar was made from this. All students were required to buy one of the calendars at the inflated price of 6RMB (although the students opined, with some justification, that similar-quality calendars could be purchased off-campus for 2RMB). Other fee scams included overinflated prices for electricity, excessively costly food, high-priced laundry facilities, etc. In the end, many students were required to pay up to double the fees they were told about in advance. Since at the time it looked like the leadership of the college was unassailable, there was mostly just bitter grumbling about the issue.
Eventually the corruption of the leadership started to attract the notice of people more powerful than provincial branches of government and the PLA. The first known attack came from a German foreign teacher in early 2003 who complained about the lies told him concerning Jiujiang Institute. At first issued to the Jiangxi education authorities (and thus ignored because of the president's connections), they were later repeated to the educational authorities in Beijing. Shortly after this, in June of 2003, Chinese teachers fed up with their mistreatment at the hands of the administration reported several tax evasions to the Beijing authorities. The intitute's bank accounts, as well as those of its senior leadership, were frozen for almost three months as investigators went over the books. Although the leadership weathered that storm as well, its connections were beginning to founder as other people found it less profitable to cover for them. The body blows continued until the president of the institute was forced to share leadership with a Party Secretary from Beijing -- in effect he was removed from power while keeping the title. After a few months in this position, the institute was removed from Jiangxi province's control and run by a new crop of leaders from Beijing.
One of the promises made by the new leadership was that they would seek to reverse the unjust and corrupt practices of the old leadership. Unlike earlier times, when students felt there was no hope, the new leadership and the pronouncements led to hope in the student body that things would change. Unfortunately--and again accounts vary--changes occurred very slowly. According to the administration, the previous administrators had left things in such a mess that it was taking months to decode what needed to be done, removed, changed, etc. According to the students the new administrators didn't care and weren't interested in reform. Either way, the result was that students, who had been given hope, had it removed from them again (as they perceived it) and this time the result was a riot.
No serious injuries are thought to have been caused during the riots, though several administrative buildings were damaged and a number of vehicles were overturned. A number of pictures were posted on Chinese message boards shortly after the riot, though most were quickly removed for political reasons.
[edit] Courses of Study
[edit] Leadership
As of 2001, the leadership of the college has rested in the following hands:
- Huang Baoqiang (黄保强), president and vice-secretary of the CPC Central Committee
- Cheng Yuncong (成运琮), secretary of the CPC Central Committee
- Zhao Wenjie (赵文杰), vice-secretary of the CPC Central Committee
- Li Yansheng (李炎生), vice-president
- Wu Taoe (吴桃娥), vice-president
[edit] Aliases
The Jiujiang Financial and Economic College is properly known as Jiujiang Institute (九江学院). It often refers to itself as Jiujiang University (would be "九江大学" in Chinese) in English only as a result of some confusion surrounding differences in educational instite organization between China and English-speaking countries. The "Institute" level is a level in between a trade school and a full-fledged university which doesn't have an equivalent in most western countries. As a result there can be confusion when the name "Jiujiang Institute" is used and it is deemed simpler to use "Jiujiang University" instead. You can find this behavior in all 学院-level institutions in China.
[edit] References
- The 20th Anniversary of the Military Supplies Finance and Economics College of the PLA.
[edit] External link
- College home page (All campus photos have been heavily retouched)
