University of Hong Kong staff may boycott classes as anger lingers over Johannes Chan controversy

Staff at the University of Hong Kong are planning an opinion poll to help determine whether to boycott classes as anger reverberates across campus after the university council’s controversial decision to reject a liberal scholar’s appointment to a senior management post.

Dr William Cheung Sing-wai, chairman of the university’s academic staff association, said his group would prepare 500 questionnaires to gauge staff members’ acceptance of the council’s decision. He said the poll would start next week and take at least two weeks to finish.

The poll will also help the association and students decide whether to initiate a boycott of classes, Cheung said. But he noted they had not sorted out details on how they would reach a decision.

“If I were not the [association’s] chairman but just a staff member, I would definitely support a boycott,” said Cheung during an appearance this morning on Commercial Radio.

The council set off a storm by voting 12-8 in a secret ballot on Tuesday night against a search committee's recommendation that former HKU law dean Johannes Chan Man-mun be made the pro-vice-chancellor in charge of academic staffing and resources.

Opposition to Chan's appointment had been linked to the liberal scholar's close ties to colleague Benny Tai Yiu-ting, a co-founder of the pro-democracy Occupy Central movement.

After the closed-door discussions on Tuesday night, angry student representative Billy Fung Jing-en abandoned confidentiality rules and revealed the reasons pro-government members had given for rejecting Chan, ranging from his not having a PhD degree to his failure to “show sympathy” to a council colleague who collapsed in July when students stormed a meeting.