Lawrence Lau, vice chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong speaks to students at an open forum yesterday. Edmond Tang

Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Vice Chancellor Lawrence Lau refused to apologize yesterday for issuing students warning letters regarding a "sex column" in the students' monthly publication, Student Press.

In May, the university issued the warning letters to editors of the publication following complaints that a column in its February and March issues was indecent.

The letters stated that the university was giving a serious warning to students, asking them to stop publishing the articles immediately.

The Obscene Articles Tribunal later classified the column as a Class II indecent article after the Ming Pao newspaper reprinted the articles.

However, last month the High Court overruled the classification and ruled that the Tribunal didn't need to hold any review hearing for the articles.

In an open session to meet with students at CUHK, Lau was confronted by angry students who demanded the university to withdraw the letters and offer students an apology.

Student Press Chief Editor Chan said that since the High Court's ruling was made, the university has not talked to the students.

She asked whether the university would put any unfavorable comments in the student editors' files.

Melody Chan, a third-year law student and one of the editors of the Student Press, criticized the university for sending the warning letters to the wrong students.

"We did not publish last year's issues. The university owes us an apology," she said.

The students' requests were met with a few seconds of silence among CUHK's senior management.

Then Lau said the letters were sent with good intentions, and he asked the students to look forward.

He clarified that the letters were not to penalize students and said there won't be a record of the incident in students' files.

"The incident is over," he said. "No student needs to get punished, and we will not reopen the case."

CUHK Registrar Eric Ng added that a penalizing letter would have explained the penalty, which the warning letters did not include.

Statue's fate

Meanwhile, Lau also rebuked media reports that CUHK is going to demolish a sculpture known as a symbol of the university, and which stands in front of the University Library.

They are taking down the sculpture only to make way for expansion of the University Library, he told the students.

The college understands the importance of the sculpture to its history, and all the parts will be kept intact, he said.

"Please be reassured that University Square and the sculpture will keep its current look after the expansion work is finished before next year's graduation ceremony," he said.

The expansion of the University Library is to cater for the addition of 3,000 freshmen in 2012, when the four-year tertiary education system will be implemented and secondary 6 and 7 students will be attending year 1 at the same time.

(HK Edition 11/18/2008 page1)