Frontline fight at CUHK

Chinese University alumni have voiced objections to reforming the university council in a paid advertisement splashed all across newspaper front pages.

More than 1,000 people signed a petition against a Legislative Council bill pushing for reforms of the university council as the Legco trio who proposed the bill said the university wants to derail the reform push.

A bills committee will meet today to scrutinize the proposed amendments by Tommy Cheung Yu-yan of the Liberal Party, Bill Tang Ka-piu of the Federation of Trade Unions and Edward Lau Kwok-fan of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong. They are all CUHK council members.

The bill push calls for downsizing members from 54 to 33, with alumni seats reduced from three to one. Legco representatives would remain at three.

The alumni who signed the petition published in the ads yesterday said they regret seeing the three Legco members submit the bill before it had been reviewed and passed by the university council.

They also appealed for a "win-win proposal for the CUHK council revamp," based on a 2016 proposal recommending that the council seats for Legco and the alumni body should both be reduced from three to two.

Tang wrote in the newspaper Wen Wei Po yesterday that the university has been actively lobbying other Legco members and slandering the amended bill.

"During the past eight months, the university has not contacted us about discussing the bill, nor has it directly proposed amendments at council meetings, but are now requesting multiple revisions?" Tang wrote.

"I want to ask whether CUHK officials support the reform or want to drag it down?" Tang also criticized the current council composition as not ideal as 27 university staff make up half of the council seats, making the governing body "a rubber stamp."

Tang's criticism was echoed by the managing director of Hong Kong China Development Holdings, Charles Leung Ying-wai, a uni council member.

Leung sent a letter to bills committee chairwoman Priscilla Leung Mei-fun, saying it was solidly supported by the council's chairman, John Chai Yat-chiu, vice-chairman Norman Chan Tak-lam and other chief executive-appointed members.

"We need to proceed with the reform swiftly to better supervise CUHK's management," said Leung.

Bill co-initiator Edward Lau said the petition gave him a weird feeling as the draft was proposed a year ago. "In council meetings, no one opposed the idea that it should be Legco members to initiate the revamp."

Opposing opinions came from university president Rocky Tuan Sung-chi, vice-president Eric Ng Shu-pui and other CUHK staff.

One of the petition initiators, CUHK's statutory alumni body leader and a council member, Kelvin Yeung Yu-ming, wrote in a newspaper that "lawmakers bypassing the university council to propose a private revamp bill is against the Basic Law's protection of university's autonomy and academic freedom."

This view was criticized by former chief executive Leung Chun-ying.

"The Basic Law clearly states that the SAR government has the responsibility in education development and improving policies, and institutional autonomy does not mean universities can decide everything themselves," Leung wrote on social media yesterday.

"Yeung interpreted out of context, which shows that the concepts of 'autonomy' and 'academic freedom' have continuously been misused since the social unrest in 2019, further demonstrating the need to reform."

Alumnus and Lingnan University president Leonard Cheng Kwok-hon, who signed the petition, denounced the Legco trio behind the bill for "circumventing the council" and "disrespecting the university."

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