Newsletter No. 61

C U H K NEWSLETTER the appointments service. A beautiful and well-mannered girl served me tea, and I was touched. Shortly afterwards, when I was at lunch with Mr Lo Po Yiu, who had taught in the BComm programme for a long time, I was told that there was a beautiful and intelligent young woman in the final year in Mr Lo's department, and that he would arrange for me to meet her. And, of course, when we met, I realized that both Mr Lo and myself were talking about the same person.' Thus began a love affair which eventually developed into a happy marriage. While attributing this to yuan fen ( 緣 份 ) , Prof. Lee also emphasized that the warm and cordial relations among staff and students in those days had made it possible for such romance to have happened. College Life Today for Students Things have changed considerably in the twenty-odd intervening years, and the greatest change occurred in the relationship between the colleges and the University. In the past the colleges were highly independent entities, with full authority in personnel recruitment, curriculum planning, and the admission o f students. Nowadays these are the responsibilities of the faculties and the departments, and students are not bound to attend classes at their own colleges. Prof. Lee is of the view that, under the present circumstances, the college can hardly build up a sound college-student relationship on the strength of weekly or monthly assemblies alone. Furthermore, the University Grants Committee (formerly UPGC) places great emphasis on the improvement of quality in teaching and research, and much attention has been shifted to the faculties and the departments. It is inevitable that the role of the colleges has somehow paled in comparison. But Prof. Lee points out that academic activities organized by the colleges, and STOT (Student-Oriented Teaching), are essential to a holistic education: he believes that it would be through these modes of informal, non- curricular education that students could develop their values and broaden their horizon. He said, 'The college is still the best place for students from different departments to mix and to exchange views, experiences and opinions. ’ According to him college spirit works in a transcendent way because informal education usually does not yield immediately cognizable results. A t the moment Prof. Lee is working on how students in Chung Chi may better perceive the functions and spirit of the college. The first thing to do would be to enrich hostel life. He plans to obtain funds for improvements to hostels and non-resident halls by increasing the number of lounges where students can meet and chat, and by putting in better cooking facilities. He w i ll also organize more hostel activities to help students learn to interact with each other and raise their sense of belonging to the college. On the informal education front, Prof. Lee w i ll seek the cooperation of the departments in organizing more distinguished visiting scholars' lectures and seminars as a means to strengthen the college's academic atmosphere. What it Means to Teachers Prof. Lee sees the relationship between academics and the college as one that is complementary and mutually beneficial. By taking an active part in college life, academics benefit themselves tremendously by coming into contact with colleagues in a large variety of fields and learning from their experience and expertise. On the other hand, the colleges can encourage teachers' sense of belonging by providing the best support possible for teaching and research activities. It is the University's policy that contribution to college life is one of the factors considered when a teacher is due for substantiation or promotion. Prof. Lee, however, thinks that little can be achieved out of this. In the first place, department chairmen and faculty deans who place strong emphasis on research results and teaching experience w i ll have little need to consider a colleague's involvement in college life. And many teachers are not even aware that this is a criterion to NO.61DECEMBER 1994 8