Nearly 40,000 people have joined an online debate over whether a college has the right to interfere in public display of affection by students on campus.

It all started with a media report about a unique part-time job that the Nanjing University of Forestry created for its students four years ago. Wearing red armbands as identification, the students patrol the campus, discouraging their schoolmates from spitting, littering, vandalizing school property and stepping on lawns.

But their most controversial assignment is to stop students from displaying "intense intimacy", such as kissing, embracing, or sitting on each other's laps.