Bulletin Summer 1988

Protest Meeting on Campus -by WilliamH.C .Wan Alumni Affairs Officer Following the publication of the Third Report of the Education Commission on 16th June, 1988, the University Senate issued on the next day official statements spelling out its stand against the finding of the report. This, in turn, kindled strong reactions from the staff, students, and the alumni alike. The Student Union issued a statement on 18th June, and at the same time announced that a mass meeting of protest would be held on campus on 26th June, 1988. The organizers had estimated that the meeting would attract about 500 to 1 ， 000 members of the staff, students and friends of the University to participate, but the actual attendance turned out to be about three times the estimated figure. In the meantime, both the Teachers' Association of CUHK and the Federation of Alumni Association of CUHK also responded to the report through a full-page advertisement in three major local newspapers in support of the stand of the Senate, emphasizing the importance of upholding the principle of academic freedom. It was a heavily overclouded day on 26th June, 1988. In the early afternoon it looked as if rain would come. The organizers of the Student Union had to decide to shift the venue of the gathering from the Chung Chi sportsground to the Sir Run Run Shaw Hall. As the time drew near to the scheduled meeting time, rented coaches as well as private cars of voluntary owners shuttled the more than 3,000 participants who had arrived by train from the station to the venue. Inside the overflown hall, students who had arrived earlier willingly gave up their occupied seats to senior alumni members. They sat with other late- arrivals at the University Mall near the hall, while listening to the loudspeakers which were transmitting the speeches being delivered inside the hall. It was a highly emotional and touching occasion. Whatever the outcome may turn out to be, the meeting on 26th June has demonstrated the solidarity between teachers, students, and friends of the University. Such solidarity is also indicative of the spirit of fellowship that grows within everyone concerned. Gao Jianfu (1879-1951), Himalayas, dated 1933, hanging scroll (Exhibition of the Art of Gao Jianfu) 5