Amid Hong Kong protests, universities shut campuses to outsiders
- HKU and Baptist University to only allow students and staff on site
- In past week, Chinese and Polytechnic universities were the scenes of battles between radicals and police
Two Hong Kong universities will ban outsiders on Monday under heightened security after a week of violent clashes on city campuses occupied by anti-government protesters.
The new arrangements, already adopted by the University of Hong Kong and with details being finalised by Baptist University, were announced on Sunday as Polytechnic University, having been taken over by radicals, was turned into a war zone and engulfed in marathon pitched battles between protesters and police.
Days before that, the hilly Sha Tin campus of Chinese University was turned into a fortress stocked with petrol bombs and bows and arrows, after it was occupied by what the institution described as “non-students”.
In a notice issued on Sunday by acting executive vice-president Professor Richard Wong Yue-chim, HKU advised staff with offices on the main and Centennial campuses to work from home if possible.
We would consider a closed campus for [Baptist University] students and staff only by tightening control at entry points to our campus
“To better protect student and staff safety, effective immediately, colleagues and students should carry their valid staff or student cards at all times while on university premises. There will be [ID] check at entrance and exit points to the campus and at individual buildings,” the notice read. The rules would apply to all of its campuses.