The matter leaves the cultural center's board, which usually meets quietly and decides pedestrian matters, caught up in an international dispute between China and Taiwan. Morgan Knull, a graduate student and member of the cultural center's board, said the board decided to resolve the matter by drafting a policy to cover all requests to hang flags at the center. When it looked as though LSU might favor the Taiwanese students' wishes and add their flag, China's general consulate in Houston wrote a letter to LSU Chancellor Mark Emmert urging him not to. On March 16, the cultural center's board adopted a policy to allow any flag from a country whose passport the U.S. State Department recognizes. Since Taiwanese students have Taiwanese passports, their flag can be added to the Hall of Nations.
Officials plan to add their flag sometime at the end of the spring semester.
But the dispute did not end there. Chinese students said the passport rule was not logical. But Mr. Ming rejected that idea. Mr. Knull said the board's new policy was open in the spirit of cultural exchange. Although the board acknowledges that the dispute is political, the center's role is not political, he said.