William G. Tierney in University World News: Academic freedom goes on trial in Hong Kong
This op-ed, authored by Pullias Center co-director William G. Tierney, was originally published in University World News on Dec. 7, 2018.
What should be the stance of a university when one of its faculty calls for peaceful protest?
In late 2014, two professors, Benny Tai Yiu-ting and Chan Kin-man, and Baptist minister Chu Yiu-ming called for a series of peaceful demonstrations to protest the lack of democracy in Hong Kong. This act of civil disobedience, which paralysed downtown Hong Kong for 79 days and came to be known as the ‘Umbrella Movement’, was a call for more democracy.
The goal to ‘Occupy Central with Love and Peace’ attracted thousands of supporters, many of them university students.
The Chinese Communist Party never budged, and the protestors eventually went home. Since that time, the mainland Chinese government has asserted greater control over Hong Kong and hopes for greater democratic engagement by the citizenry have faded.
Read the rest of this op-ed in University World News.
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William G. Tierney is University Professor and Wilbur-Kieffer Professor of Higher Education in the USC Rossier School of Education and the co-director of the Pullias Center for Higher Education.