Naming University Buildings with Commercial Brands

Recently, a teaching building in Tsinghua University was named as “Jeanswest Building”, “Jeanswest” being the name of a leading casual wear brand. In the wake of the event, a huge uproar was triggered nationwide. People in and outside Tsinghua University expressed their outrage, denouncing its authorities for allowing the university to be contaminated by commercialism.

To a large extent, such indignation is justified. Almost all Chinese universities are established and financially supported by the government. As public institutions, they are expected to concentrate solely on educating upright students and performing independent research. Commercialism has been carefully warded off so that neither universities nor their students would become money-oriented. Therefore, many fear that, if commercial encroachment is allowed to happen to a top university like Tsinghua University, rampant commercialism would extend to all universities across China.

However, no specific laws or regulations prohibit individuals or corporate organizations from making donations and having their names inscribed on certain facilities. In fact, some universities have already done so. Investigations show that, in Tsinghua University itself, there have been three precedents—three buildings in the School of Journalism, the Medical School and the School of Electronics have been respectively named after their donators. In the United States, this is a common practice and perhaps we have not yet grown accustomed to it.

A key factor in this controversy involves the need to scrutinize the motivation behind each donation. On one hand, we shouldn’t dampen the enthusiasm of individuals and corporate organizations to perform their social responsibility by making generous donations. On the other hand, we shouldn’t indiscriminately accept donations that carry explicit commercial intentions. Additionally, the management of the collected funds should be transparent, ensuring that the funds are exclusively used for educational purposes. In this way, donations are bound to produce positive outcomes.

                      用商业品牌来命名大学的教学楼


        近期，清华大学的一幢教学大楼被命名为“真维斯楼”，而“真维斯”则是某知名休闲服装品牌的名字。事发之后，全国范围内引发了一场轩然大波。无论是清华大学之内还是之外的人们，都表达了他们的愤慨，谴责校方致使学府为商业主义所玷污。

        在很大程度上，这种义愤有其合理之处。中国几乎所有的大学均为政府所创办，受到政府财政的支持。作为公立机构，人们寄希望于这些高等学府心无旁涉地专注于培养正直的学生，从事独立的科研。人们一直小心翼翼地将商业主义拒之校园之外，这样，无论是学校还是学生，都不会变成一切向钱看。因此，许多人担忧，一旦商业侵蚀被允许发生在像清华大学这样一座顶尖学府的身上，肆虐的商业主义将横扫全国各地所有的高等学府。

        然而，中国又没有任何具体的法律或规定，禁止个人或企业进行捐款，将其名字铭刻在某些教学设施上。事实上，某些大学早就在这么做了。媒体的调查显示，即使在清华大学本身，此类的先例已发生过三次——新闻学院、医学院和电子工程学院的三幢大楼，已分别以其捐赠者的名字来命名。在美国，这一做法十分普遍；或许，我们现在还尚未习惯这一通行的做法。

        在这场争论中，一个关键因素是，我们有必要对每一次捐赠背后的动机进行审查。一方面，我们不应对个人或企业通过慷慨捐赠来履行其社会责任的热情泼冷水。另一方面，对于那些带有公然商业企图的捐赠，我们不应该不分青红皂白地一概予以接受。此外，对于那些已经收到的资金，管理应透明，以便确保这些资金专门用于教学目的。这样，所有的捐赠必将产生正面的效果。