Emblem fiasco continues to haunt CUHK

Eunice Lam

Chinese University's governing council says it is "unacceptable" that CUHK management bypassed it when issuing a new emblem without consultation in October 2022, which cost about HK$4 million and failed to comply with the body's review work.

Council chairman John Chai Yat-chiu, after a meeting by the body yesterday, expressed disappointment at the "miscalculation" when management redesigned the emblem and bypassed the council and other stakeholders.

Chai also cited president Rocky Tuan Sung-chi as having said he would bear responsibility for the incident.

But Chai refused to disclose how Tuan would be held accountable and merely said the governing council would "definitely follow up on the issue."

Tuan had earlier resigned and will leave CUHK in January.

"During a council meeting on October 25, 2022, after we dropped the new emblem design, we requested the university to explain the whole incident," Chai said.

"But it has been 19 months now, so we hired a third-party independent consultant to look into the issue."

He added it was "incompetent" for management not to comply.

The cost of hiring a "world-famous image consultancy" had taken up the largest part of the HK$4 million emblem redesign expenses, Chai added.

The council spent some HK$600,000 to hire the consultant.

Tuan was absent from yesterday's council meeting as he had gone to Kunming in Yunnan province to meet representatives of the local government and CUHK's Shenzhen branch.

The council had written to Tuan earlier this month to discuss if he could attend the meeting, Chai said. Tuan was present during a meeting last month to listen to the consultant's report.

When asked about Tuan's successor, Chai described the process as smooth and hoped to announce more details by the end of the year.

The saga came about after CUHK announced unveiling a new emblem in October 2022 to mark its 60th anniversary next year, but the design was dropped a week later.

The design featured a gold phoenix on a purple shield with the school motto "Through learning and temperance to virtue" on a ribbon below, plus a simplified version with no motto or ribbon. Tuan had been criticized for his handling of the redesign, with students and alumni blaming a lack of consultation.

eunice.lam@singtaonewscorp.com