Update | ‘We cannot condone mob rule’: University of Hong Kong vice-chancellor condemns students who besieged council meeting
Despite protesters’ demands for immediate evaluation of HKU governance structure, council voted to set up review panel only in two months’ time
The University of Hong Kong’s vice-chancellor has condemned as “mob rule” the siege of a governing council meeting on Tuesday night.
Professor Peter Mathieson said the scenes would not bring credit to those involved and that HKU students “should be capable of better”. He has offered to hand over videos of those involved to police.
About 200 student protesters surrounded and besieged the council meeting held at the Sassoon Road campus in Pok Fu Lam. They were pressing for an immediate review of the school’s governance structure and a face-to-face conversation with Professor Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, the newly-appointed council chairman.
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Li, a former education minister, is highly unpopular among the school’s students and staff due to his hardline leadership style.
But Billy Fung Jing-en, president of the HKU Students’ Union and a member of the school council, said their actions were reasonable, though he himself had voted for conducting the evaluation in two months.
