As the University has admitted twice the number of new students in this double-cohort year, the orientation activities organized by our Colleges, Faculties and departments were more diverse than before. Some Colleges integrated social services into their orientation activities to instill social responsibility and a sense of humanity in their students.

Wu Yee Sun College, which admitted its first batch of students this year, organized a series of orientation activities in collaboration with the Hong Kong Organic Waste Recycling Centre and Friends of the Earth. Its new students visited the centre to learn about food waste recycling and tried first-hand to use food waste to cultivate mushrooms and organic fertilizer to grow vegetables.

In the ‘Love Food! Cook Up!’ competition, participants used food waste provided by canteens on campus to cook. The panel of judges included Prof. Joseph J.Y. Sung, CUHK Vice-Chancellor; Mr. Lee Ming-kwai Dick, former Commissioner of Police; Mr. Peter T.W. Yam, former Deputy Commissioner of Police; and Prof. Rance P.L. Lee, Master of the College.

C.W. Chu College, which also welcomed its first intake of students this year, organized a series of orientation activities with the theme ‘Creativity, Leadership, Service’. New students were divided into groups to visit local farmers, families on welfare and ethnic minorities, gaining a better understanding of the predicament in which local farmers found themselves, and becoming more concerned with poverty and discrimination issues.

These activities helped our freshmen to reflect on their social responsibility before starting their university life.

Nine Colleges, namely, Chung Chi, New Asia, United, Shaw, Morningside, S.H. Ho, C.W. Chu, Wu Yee Sun, and Lee Woo Sing, chanted slogans in praise of the University and their Colleges at the University Mall. More than 1,000 local, mainland and international students left coloured palm prints on two long pieces of cloth, on which Professor Sung had written a couplet, symbolizing the solidarity among CUHK students.