University Room Regulations

Approved and Prohibited Items

    The following items are approved for use in residential (住宿的) rooms: electric blankets, hair dryers, personal computers, radios, televisions and DVD players. Items that are not allowed in student rooms include: candles, ceiling fans, fireworks, waterbeds, sun lamps and wireless routers. Please note that any prohibited items will be taken away by the Office of Residence Life.

Access to Residential Rooms

    Students are provided with a combination (组合密码) for their room door locks upon check-in. Do not share your room door lock combination with anyone. The Office of Residence Life may change the door lock combination at any time at the expense of the resident if it is found that the student has shared the combination with others. The fee is $25 to change a room combination.

Cooking Policy

    Students living in buildings that have kitchens are only permitted to cook in the kitchen. Students must clean up after cooking. This is not the responsibility of housekeeping staff. Kitchens that are not kept clean may be closed for use. With the exception of using a small microwave oven (微波炉) to heat food, students are not permitted to cook in their rooms.

Pet Policy

    No pets except fish are permitted in student rooms. Students who are found with pets, whether visiting or owned by the student, are subject to an initial fine of $100 and a continuing fine of $50 a day per pet. Students receive written notice when the fine goes into effect. If, one week from the date of written notice, the pet is not removed, the student is referred to the Student Court.

Quiet Hours

    Residential buildings must maintain an atmosphere that supports the academic mission of the University. Minimum quiet hours in all campus residences are 11:00 pm to 8:00 am Sunday through Thursday. Quiet hours on Friday and Saturday nights are 1:00 am to 8:00 am. Students who violate quiet hours are subject to a fine of $25.

Dear World:

    My son starts school today. It's going to be strange and new to him for a while. And I wish you would sort of treat him gently.

    You see, up to now, he's been king of the house. He's been boss of the backyard. I have always been around to repair his wounds, and to ease his feelings.

    But now things are going to be different.

    This morning, he's going to walk down the front steps, wave his hand and start on his great adventure that will probably include wars and tragedy and sorrow.

    So, World, I wish you would sort of take him by his young hand and teach him the things he will have to know. Teach him but gently, if you can. Teach him the wonders of books. Give him quiet time to ponder(思考) the eternal mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun, and flowers on the green hill. Teach him it is far more honorable to fail than to cheat. Teach him to have faith in his own ideas, even if everyone else tells him they are wrong. Teach him to sell his physical strength and brains to the person who offers the most money, but never to put a price on his heart and soul. Teach him to close his ears to a criminal gang (团伙) ...and to stand and fight if he thinks he's right. Teach him gently, World, but don't coddle him, because only the test of fire makes fine steel.

A Mother

    To err is human. To blame the other guy is even more human.

    Common sense is not all that common.

    Why tell the truth when you can come up with a good excuse?

    These three popular misquotes (戏谑的引语) are meant to be jokes, and yet they tell us a lot about human nature. To err, or to make mistakes, is indeed a part of being human, but it seems that most people don't want to accept the responsibility for having made a mistake. They naturally look for someone else who could be responsible for the problem. Perhaps it is the natural thing to do. The original quote about human nature went like this: “To err is human, to forgive, divine (神圣的).” This saying mirrors an ideal: people should be forgiving of others' mistakes. Instead, we tend to do the opposite —— find someone else to pass the blame on to. However, taking responsibility for something that went wrong is a mark of great maturity.

    Common sense is what we call clear thought. Having common sense means having a good general plan that will make things work well, and it also means staying with the plan. Common sense tells you that you take an umbrella out into a rainstorm, but you leave the umbrella home when you hear a weather forecast for sunshine. Common sense does not seem to be common for large organizations, because there are so many things going on that one person cannot be in charge of everything. People say that in a large company, “the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.”

    And what is wrong with a society that thinks that making up a good excuse is like creating a work of art? One of the common problems with making excuses is that people, especially young people, get the idea that it's okay not to be totally honest all the time. There is a corollary (直接推论) to that: if a good excuse is “good” even if it isn't honest, then where is the place of the truth?

    There are a growing number of pet owners who feed their pets on raw foods, which means "uncooked" meat and bones. William Burk, a pet food specialist from the Food and Drug Administration(FDA), believes that feeding raw meat to pets is against its goal of protecting the public from health dangers, and that raw meat and bones do not have all the required nutrition that a pet needs every day.

    Recognizing how popular these foods are, the FDA has provided guidelines for producers of pet foods which contain uncooked meat for dogs, cats and other pets. The guidelines give rules to protect pet owners and pets from dangers about food safety and lack of nutrition.

    Pet owners who feed raw meat and bones to their pets should deal with these products very carefully to protect themselves against possible dangers, says Burk. Just as when you are preparing foods for human beings, use hot water and soap to wash your hands, containers, and surfaces that come into contact with the food. Don't put your hands near your mouth until you have washed them, and don't allow your pet to touch your face right after it has eaten raw meat.

    "If pet owners choose to feed bones to their pets, they should watch their pets carefully when they are eating bones," Burk says, "If a pet eats a big piece of bone that won't pass through its digestive system(消化系统), it is likely to kill the pet."

    When it comes to medical care, many patients and doctors believe "more is better." But what they do not realize is that overtreatment—too many scans, too many blood tests, too many procedures—may bring harm. Sometimes a test leads you down a path to more and more testing, some of which may be invasive, or to treatment for things that should be left alone.

    Terrence Power, for example, complained that after his wife learned she had Wegener's disease, an uncommon disorder of the immune system, they found it difficult to refuse testing recommended by her doctor. The doctor insisted on office visits every three weeks, even when she was feeling well. He frequently ordered blood tests and X－rays, and repeatedly referred her to specialists for even minor complaints. Even when tests came back negative, more were ordered, and she was hospitalized as prevention when she developed a cold. She had as many as 25 doctor visits during one six－month period. The couple was spending about $30,000 a year for her care.

    After several years of physical suffering and near financial ruin from the medical costs, the couple began questioning the treatment after discussing with other patients in online support groups. "It's a really hard thing to determine when they've crossed the line," Mr. Power said. "You think she's getting the best care in the world, but after a while you start to wonder: What is the purpose?" Mr. Power then spoke with his own primary care doctor, who advised him to find a new specialist to oversee Mrs. Power's care. Under the new doctor's care, the regular testing stopped and Mrs. Power's condition stabilized. Now she sees the doctor only four or five times a year.

Painting is an ancient medium and even with the introduction of photography, film and digital technology, it still has remained a persistent mode of expression. So many paintings have come into being over the years but only a small percentage of them could be described as "timeless classics". The following are some of the most famous paintings of all time. 

Leonardo Da Vinci, Mona Lisa, 1503—1519

Painted between 1503 and 1519, Leonardo da Vinci's attractive portrait has been a subject of controversy since the day it was made, due to two questions: Who's the subject and why is she smiling? A number of theories for the former have been provided over the years: That she's the wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco di Bartolomeo del Giocondo and that she's Leonardo's mother, Caterina. As for that famous smile, its quality has driven people crazy for hundreds of years. 

James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1. 1871

Whistler's Mother, or Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, as it's actually titled, speaks to the artist's ambition to pursue art for art's sake. James Abbott McNeill Whistler painted the work in his London studio in 1871. Whistler's mother Anna is pictured as one of several elements locked into an arrangement of right angles. Her severe expression fits in with the rigidity of the composition, and it's somewhat ironic to note that despite Whistler's formalist intentions, the painting became a symbol of motherhood. 

Jan van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434

As one of the most significant works produced during the Northern Renaissance, this composition is believed to be one of the first paintings finished in oils. It portrays an Italian merchant and a woman who may or may not be his bride. In 1934. the celebrated art historian Erwin Panofsky proposed that the painting is actually a wedding contract. What can be reliably said is that the piece used orthogonal perspective to create a sense of space. It feels like a painting you could step into.