Recap-Corona@hku
Gabriel Fung
The outbreak of the Coronavirus, COVID-19, SARS 2.0... has forced the cancellation of classes and relegated people to having to attend (some) lectures and tutorials through zoom. This just following the protests towards the end of 2019, which similarly caused the closure of the University.
The University came under fire as it failed to announce the suspension of classes, even as suspected cases began popping up on campus, and the outbreak in the city began to worsen.
nCov-ering the university
The official statement only came out two days after five personnel dressed in full-gear were spotted in Meng Wah disinfecting the lift lobby, and suspected cases were found in Swire, St. John’s, and Morrison Halls. But shortly afterwards, the University was criticized again for being slow to roll out its contingency plans to move classes online, and also being “ineffective in resolving rising tension and panic”.
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Moreover, University halls were accused of forcibly allocating floors of rooms in Lady Ho Tung, and Starr Halls to act as quarantine facilities for returning mainland students. Hall residents were allegedly not consulted on this prior.
Meanwhile, there were also reports of students breaking their quarantine.
According to social media platforms, there were reports of a student violating the self-quarantine policy and returning to the University laboratory. There were apparently also cases of other students leaving their quarantined hotel rooms without notice.
Concessions for COVID
A group of international students started an online petition to demand concessions to school fees, stating that it is ‘unacceptable pay tuition fees sans concessions despite having no access to university facilities, cancellation of the official examination period, and having to complete watered down course assessments’. Over 1400 people have signed the petition.
Faculty specific petitions were also started, such as students from the Journalism and Media Studies Centre, who said while they were appreciative of the online resources, that they “are not a substitute for face-to-face classes.”
In response, Vice-President Ian Holliday said that the University would not reimburse the composition fees, but offer a 50% or full refund to residents.
Incident at Medical exam
Despite calls to cancel all in-person exams, HKU’s medical faculty insisted on holding hall examinations at Flora Ho Sports Centre. Exam administrators had health measures in place, such as providing disinfectant wipes, placing candidates two meters from one another, and temperature checks at the door.
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But the controversy arose when 10 students, who scored feverish temperatures when checked, were sent to the hospital and found to not have fevers at all. Moreover, the students at the hospital were placed in the same area as other patients with fever.
Medical students accused the faculty of treating their lives as worthless, and some declared that they would boycott the exam.
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