Update | HKU alumni vote to stop delaying liberal scholar’s appointment and end role of chief executive as chancellor
A University of Hong Kong alumni believed that views expressed during Tuesday’s alumni meeting would be noted by their alma mater’s governing council.
University of Hong Kong alumni have voted overwhelmingly to support calls for the institution’s governing body to appoint a pro-vice-chancellor within 30 days.
They also voted to revise the law so that the chief executive should no longer be the chancellor of the university, or that his role should be ceremonial.
The results were released today after an extraordinary general meeting of the University of Hong Kong Convocation – a statutory body comprising 162,000 graduates and lecturers – last night.
More than 3,000 alumni gathered to debate the controversially delayed appointment of Professor Johannes Chan Man-mun, a former law dean lambasted by Beijing-loyalist media over his ties to Occupy Central co-founder Benny Tai Yiu-ting.
A total of 9,298 votes were cast in person and by proxy.
Five of the motions that call for reforms secured more than 80 per cent of the votes. The motion that asked the council to confirm the appointment of a pro-vice-chancellor within 30 days got 7,821 “yes” votes. Only 1,371 voted against.