President and VPAA's letter to all students

• Subject: President and VPAA's letter to all students
• From: Office of University Development & Public Affairs <oudpa@ust.hk>
• Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 22:04:09 +0800 (HKT)

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Dear Students,

I am heartened that the sit-in by our students today to voice their grievances about hostel shortage had been conducted in a most responsible and rational manner. 

Vice-President Roland Chin and I have been exploring various avenues to ease the shortage of hostel space and improve the hostel allocation mechanism ever since we met with student representatives earlier this month. I regret that both of us could not be with you today because we are out of town on duty.

When word reached me about your excellent conduct and orderly manner at the sit-in today - a manner that did a great honour to the university and to all HKUST students - we told ourselves that these fine young men and women truly are the future of Hong Kong. 

Prof Chin joins me in pledging our utmost effort to resolve the hostel shortage problem and address the inadequacies in the allocation mechanism.  Some of the improvement measures are already being implemented, such as enhanced transparency in the hostel allocation and the search for suitable private sector housing for use as hostel space. Some of the longer-term measures will take time and you will be fully consulted as we progress towards a satisfactory solution.

We are truly proud of you and are confident that working hand in hand with you, we shall overcome this problem.


Paul Chu
Roland Chin