Legco passes bill to reform CUHK council
Lawmakers passed a bill on Wednesday to reform the governing council of Chinese University (CUHK), downsizing the body while introducing more outside members. Council membership will be cut from 55 to 34, while the ratio of external and internal members will be changed to 2:1, from the current 1:1. Meanwhile, the method for hiring the vice-chancellor and provost are being altered, with future appointments requiring the support of three quarters of council members. Most lawmakers who spoke during the debate supported the changes, which were put forward by three legislators who also sit on the CUHK council. Priscilla Leung from the Business and Professionals Alliance said the changes are long overdue and the university should humbly accept them as other local universities have all increased the number of external council members. She said CUHK had renewed vice-chancellor Rocky Tuan's contract without a global recruitment exercise, despite him being "a controversial figure" due to his handling of protests in 2019. Another issue Leung flagged up was CUHK's bid last year to change its emblem. The move was eventually abandoned following a backlash. "When the chairman of the council asked for further information, when the three lawmakers tried to raise an item for discussion at the council meeting, they were both rejected. It shows clearly that the university council is out of order," Leung said in the Legco chamber. Tik Chi-yuen from Third Side said there hadn't been enough discussions on the bill and he was worried the convention of consensus-building was being damaged. Seventy-six legislators backed the bill, nobody opposed it, while Tik, Kenneth Lau and Gary Zhang abstained. Bill mover Tommy Cheung from the Liberal Party said he was glad that it passed. "The [CUHK] management should be a lot more accountable... and I think a lot of the things will be looked at and scrutinised," he told reporters. The CUHK council also welcomed the result of the Legco vote, saying the bill's passage is an important step for improving university governance. "Following the bill’s gazettal and the commencement of the reorganised council with new composition, we will work diligently to finalise methods to admit other categories of members as soon as practicable," it said in a statement. The council also thanked the lawmakers for their support, advice and contributions, to both the governing body and the broader university community.