A change has taken place in the student club evaluative system. Starting this semester, if a student club fails to participate in Student Club Evaluations and has not turned in its activities record, its license may be revoked, meaning the club can no longer hold any activities.

As for departmental associations, they may not face the dissolution fate, but worse than that, the association leader can subject to a “reprimand” order by school authorities, as per Student Penal/Reward Code, Article VII. 10.

What has brought about such a drastic change in the evaluative system? According to Ms. Liu Ai-hwa, Chief of Extracurricular Activities Guidance Section, the original intention of setting up such a system is to examine the developing status of each club. After a prolonged period of practice, some clubs simply ignore such a rule, let alone handing in their record of activities.

It goes without saying that the resources of the school are limited, and misappropriation of the fund to use on some irresponsible clubs is an abuse of the system. So, after a careful evaluation, those clubs that have skipped participating in the system shall forfeit their rights such as being given priority consideration when applying for facilities to hold club activities.

Another veteran lady Miss. Chang Yu-zung from the same Section, who also has long-time experience in supervising student club activities, said that the school is perfectly willing to help students to close their associations, if they intend to do so. But by holding everything up in the air, this dangling attitude manifested by some club leaders can only add frustration to administrative personnel.

In terms of student response, there are of course pros and cons to the school’s rather stringent decision. For instance, Miss Lin Sz-chih, Leader of the celebrated Chinese Music Club, which has just won a Meritorious Performance Award, commented that having missed the participation in the evaluative system will result in losing the club status---this decision is far too strict for any club to accept. But another student club leader whose name is Miss Dai Wan-lu said that some club leaders are really “jerks” and that the firm attitude taken by school authorities is justified. The club leaders should learn a lesson from this resolution: either they “shape up”, or they “ship out”. Period.

The evaluation date has also gone thru a change, from June 1 to 3 changed to June 2 to 5. Concerned leaders, please take a note of it.