Explainer | PolyU disciplinary measures: how universities have reacted to messages on campus advocating Hong Kong independence
- Four Polytechnic University students who stormed management offices last October were given penalties ranging from community service to expulsion
- Universities have taken different approaches to separatist messages posted by students, with some choosing mediation and others forcibly removing banners
Polytechnic University has been embroiled in controversy since last week, when it imposed the severest penalties in recent years on four students involved in a campus dispute over free speech and Hong Kong independence.
Concluding a month-long investigation, a six-member disciplinary committee decided on March 1 to expel Gerald Ho Jun-him, a postgraduate nursing student, and barred him from reapplying.
Former student union president Lam Wing-hang was suspended for a year. Owan Li, the student representative on the university council, was given 120 hours of community service, while Hazel Cheng Yuet-ting, former external vice-president of the student union, was given 60 hours of community service.
The decision prompted a war of words over the past week between university authorities and student groups.
What happened at PolyU?
The four students stormed the school management offices with about 10 others on October 4 and prevented vice-president Geoffrey Shen Qiping and dean of students Esmond Mok Chi-ming from leaving.
