Newsletter No. 205

2 No. 205 19th June 2002 CUHK Newsletter Lectur e t oDispe l Illusion s o fWeigh t T he Department of Psychology presented a public lecture entitled 'Weight: To Lose or Not to Lose?' on 8th June 2002 in L i Koon Chun Hall in celebration of its 20th anniversary. Delivered by Prof. Freedom Leung, the aim of the lecture is to release the latest scientific information on what factors determine our weight, how to assess whether one is overweight, what the best ways to maintain a healthy weight range are, and what w i ll happen i f one tries to lose weight when one is not overweight. A recent study conducted by Prof. Leung and Ms. Ch r i s t i ne Lau o f the Department o f Psychology on the body concerns and eating behaviours of 484 Hong Kong female nurses aged between 20 and 55 showed that over 92 per cent of them are concerned about body weight and shape. Nearly 40 per cent of these women reported hinging, with 7.9 per cent doing so o n a we e k ly basis. Some w o u l d pathogenically try self-induced vomiting and consume laxatives to lose weight. These f i n d i n gs are p a r t i c u l a r ly disturbing as all sampled women in this study were nurses, professionals who are supposed to know much better than the general public about how to take care of their health. These findings clearly indicate that eating disorders are not confined to naive teenage girls. Many adult Chinese women in Hong Kong are highly obsessed with being slim, and five per cent of them actually suffer from clinical eating pathologies in their life time. Foru m on Wast e Reductio n an d Recyclin g M o r e t h a n 6 0 representatives from the go v e r nmen t, trade un i ons, industrial associations, professional bodies, academic and research institutions, public utility companies, green groups, and secondary schools took part in the environmental po l i cy forum organized by the Centre for Environmental Policy and Resource Management on 29th May at Cho Yiu Conference Hall. That was the third environmental policy forum organized by the centre this year, with waste reduction and recycling as its theme. The keynote speakers were Mr. Donald Tong, deputy secretary of the Environment and Food Bureau, Mr. Daniel M. Cheng, managing director of Dunwell Enviro-Tech (Holdings) Ltd., Dr. Gordon Ng, chief executive of the Conservancy Association, and Prof. Poon Chi-sun, professor in the Depa r tment o f C i v i l and S t r u c t u r al Engineering of the Polytechnic University. Seven other experts were also invited to give comments at the forum. Website to Boost Career Prospects of Graduates T he Career Planning and Development Centre of the Of f i ce o f Student Affairs recently launched a website called CU Job Link to provide one-stop online career service for university students and employers, including employers who have been approached by the University to secure job placements for CUHK graduates. The centre also introduced its career planning enhancement programmes and services to the 2002 graduates. Despite the economic downturn, 96.7 per cent of the 2001 CUHK graduates have found jobs o r embarked on further studies. US Wr i t i ng Project Establishes First Asian Site at CUHK T he Faculty o f Education has been selected to host the first site in Asia of the National Writing Project (NWP) in the US. The NWP is a network of 170 university- affiliated sites across the US w i th select international partnerships. Its mission is to improve the teaching and learning of English in schools by recognizing the primary importance of teacher knowledge, expertise, and leadership. Excellent teachers share good practices by participating i n the Summer Institute run by the project and other p r o f e s s i onal de v e l opment a c t i v i t i es throughout the year. Entitled the WrITE Project (Writing for I n t e g r a t e d T e a c h e r Education), the Hong Kong p r o j ect adapts the NWP model for the local English l a n g u a g e t e a c h i n g community while embracing the NWP philosophy. The adapted NWP site was set up by the Faculty of Education with a donation from Dr. Tien Chang L i n T e c h n o l o gy Innovation Foundation Ltd., and the assistance of Prof. Richard Sterling, executive director of NWP, Prof. David Pearson, dean of the graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley, and other scholars. The team visited the Faculty of Education in Ma r ch and May this year t o conduct seminars, interviews, and carry out selection procedures for the Summer Institute. Subsequent visits are scheduled for June and July 2002. A task force w i th Mrs. Barley Mak, senior instructor i n the Department o f Curriculum and Instruction, as the principal investigator has been formed to oversee the implementation of the project and evaluate its effects in the Hong Kong context. Service to the Commun i ty and Internat ional Organizat ions * Prof. Chan Ying Keung, professor in the Department of Sociology, has been reappointed by the Chief Executive of the HKSAR as a member of the Statistics Advisory Board for two years from 1st June 2002. * Dr. Philip Wu Po Him, adjunct professor in the Department of Decision Sciences and Managerial Economics, has been reappointed by the Chief Executive of the HKSAR as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Lord Wilson Heritage Trust for one year from 1st April 2002. * Prof. Tan Chee Beng, professor in the Department of Anthropology, has been appointed by the Director of Leisure and Cultural Services Department as an honorary adviser (ethnography) of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department from May 2002 to 31st March 2004. * Prof. Kwok Siu Tong, professor in the Department of History, has been reappointed by the Hospital Authority Board as a member of the Hospital Governing Committee of Shatin Hospital for two years from 1st April 2002. * Prof. Bernard Lim Wan Fung, associate professor in the Department of Architecture, has been appointed by the Council of the Hong Kong Institute of Architects as a member of the Architects Registration Board for two years from 17th May 2002. * Prof. Cynthia Chan Shiu Yee, associate professor in the Department of Community and Family Medicine, was invited to be an external examiner by the Department of Family Medicine at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia for the Conjoint Examinations for a Master Degree in Family Medicine (co-organized by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Universiti Malaya) from 8th to 17th May 2002, * Prof. Chan Ngai Hang, professor of statistics, was elected a fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics in May 2002. Corrigendum In the last issue, Prof. Diana T.F. Lee's title should be 'professor in the Nethersole School of Nursing'. (Information in this section is provided by the Information and Public Relations Office. Contributions should be sent direct to that office for registration andv e r t i f i c a t i o n before publication.) Business Alumni Share Experience with Mentees T he BBA A l umni Association and the Faculty of Business Administration of the University jointly organized a career preparation talk for participants o f the Undergraduate Mentorship Programme on 1st June 2002 in the MBA Town Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui. A t the talk, undergraduate business students at the University met with professionals and alumni to seek their advice on how to prepare for work on the mainland and how to start their own business. The guest speakers i nc l uded Dr. Sammy Ho (middle), executive director of j-hunter.com , Mr. Patrick Cheung (right), partner of UR-Photos Ltd. and operation manager of the Hua Kuang Advertising (China) Group, and Mr. Alex Shiu (left), director of Young Brothers Aviation Ltd.