Professors no door keepers
Recently professors at the Institute of Clinical Pharmacological Research under Peking University were forced to work as regular gatekeepers. The move indicates unreasonable use of authority by superior officials, says an article in Beijing News. An excerpt follows:
Well-educated professionals with specialization in different subjects were told to be "temporary gatekeepers" on a 20-day-a-shift basis. According to the institute head, professors are not special persons and thus should not be exempted from guarding their workplace.
It is indeed true that no vocation is inferior or superior to others, whether it is that of a professor or a gatekeeper.
However, every vocation can play its maximum role only in specific working conditions as labor division becomes increasingly concrete and sophisticated. Professors' largest contribution to society is to give better lessons to students or to conduct better scientific research but not to do something beyond their own specialized domains.
Any irrelevant work on a non-voluntary basis would mean depriving the professors of dignity and freedom as a professional person.
In this case, the "equality of vocations" slogan was used as an excuse for some officials' excessive use of power.
(China Daily 01/07/2009 page8)
