••!••••••1•1•1.•.•.•.1.•I ····••••• ••••1•1•••••••••••11••t l ··•••·•··· ::::: ::::::::.::::?~ .•...
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De
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Development of the Office of General Administration & Committees What is known today as the Office of General Administration and Committees started in mid-1986 as a Secretariat of the Planning Committee for the Third University. George Scott, Director of Administration, was the first employee sec-onded from the Hong Kong Government to set up the Secretariat. He found the first premises for the Secretariat on top of Admiralty MTR Station, acquired the necessary furniture and office equipment, arranged gradually for the secondment of eight staff, all from the Government, and started organising the first Plenary Session of the Planning Committee in September the same year. Major decisions like naming the University, giving it a permanent home at Clear Water Bay, providing it with a legal framework within which to operate and, above all, shaping its academic profile, all
came from the Planning Committee and its sub-committees. Obtaining and
promul-gating decisions from committees has since become a regular facet of the work of Mr Scott and his team, and this is only part of the function of his Office.
The remaining portion is not so easy to define. As the University has recruited permanent staff, the bulk of the work of the former Secretariat has been taken over
by other offices. One could now say that everything that is not taken up by other
Offices falls to the Office of General Administration. Examples include management of office transport, distribution of inventory, handling of mail, messengerial services, co-ordinating functions, and answering general enquiries from the public as well as
miscellaneous requests for services from within the University.
To-day the Office of General Administration and Committees has 22 staff out of a current establishment of 202 for the whole University. Some of the 22 appeared in previous issues of Genesis and the rest is introduced in this issue.
UPDAT
E
*
HKUST Social Club*
The first Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the HKUST Social Club was held on 28 March 1990. The meeting was attended by twenty-one members. Chairman of the ad hoc Management Committee of the Club, Mr George Scott, gave a brief report on the work progress of the Committee and the activities or-ganised by it. As of the meeting, a total of 90 applications for membership had been received.
Following some discussion and an agreement on some minor
amend-ments, the draft constitution worked out by the ad hoc Management Committee
was adopted by the AGM. Membership
of the first Management Committee was
also announced. Members are: Mr
Michael Cheng, Mr Mervyn Cheung, Ms Agnes Cheung, Prof Peter Dobson, Mrs Stella Ip, Dr Steve Kong, Miss Gloria Lo, Mr George Lomas, Mr George Scott, and Mrs Magdalena Yen.
The first meeting of the Manage-ment Committee will be held on 20 April 1990. •C. ••••• ii i}• ··· ... ••••••• ···•· i} ··· ...
,
··· ••••• ••••••• •••• ... ••••• ••••• ···•···· ... ···•· .... .... ·•··· ··· ··· ··· ••••• ( .... ··· ··· •••••if···
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··· ···75
··· ···•· ··· ··· ·-·-·-··-·-·-·-· News in BriefAt its meeting on 7-9 April,
Council agreed to change the title of the General Education
Centre to School of Humanities
and Social Science, forthwith.
The five scheduled GEC De-partments will be replaced by two Divisions -- Humanities and Social Science. The role and re-sourcing of the new School will, however, be unchanged, and like the former GEC it will offer no undergraduate majors but only
postgraduate degrees and
undergraduate enrichment courses.
Prof Maurice Craft is to be awarded a higher doctorate (the degree of Dlitt) by Nottingham University on the recommenda-tion of expert external examin-ers, in recognition of his contri-bution to the academic literature
in the sociology of education.
Mr Danny Yung was invited as a special guest speaker by the Fine Arts Department of New Asia College of the Chinese
University on 23 March. He
spoke on "Ways of Seeing and Ways of Creating."
April 1990
Staff Introduction
General Administration
&
Committees Office,
Part II
ELENA CHU, Stenographer, enjoys picnicking, swim-ming and travelling. She came to HKUST on second-ment from Hong Kong governsecond-ment.
SHIRLEY CONWAY, Executive Officer, is mainly re-sponsible for committee work. Formerly of the University of Hong Kong, she enjoys reading, swimming and jog-ging.
HUNG CHARN-FAI, Chauffeur, came to HKUST from Hong Kong Goverr:iment. His hobbies are fishing and going to movies.
RACHAEL JP, Clerk, performs general clerical duties.
She enjoys reading and swimming. Previously she worked for the Bank of Credit and Commerce (HK) Ltd. KU WAI-SANG, Office Assistant, is in charge of general office duties. His hobbies are table tennis, cycling, writing to pen pals and travelling. He came to HK UST from Hong Kong Bank.
JOEY SIU, Clerk, is responsible for general clerical duties. She enjoys Chinese music and was formerly employed by S K H Kei Wing Primary School.
SAMUEL TSE, Clerk, performs general clerical duties. His hobbies are reading and listening to music.
Previ-\ Staff Movement in March
Welcome Aboard, new staff!
Computer Services and Telecommunications: Mr Kwan Shu-kin, Samuel, Computer Officer; Mr Kwok Chor-sang, Computer Officer; Mr Siu King-sun, Sunny, Computer Officer; Mr Choy Koon-lun, Charles, Assistant Computer Officer. Estates Manaoement: Ms Cheng Kwai-wah, Stella, Clerk I. Finance: Mr Lo Kam-tin, Sammy, Finance Manager (Purchasing); Ms Cheung Mi-lin, Monita, Clerk II; Ms Ng Fung-ling, Clerk II; Miss Wong Bo-chu, Patricia, Clerk II; Miss Yip Wing-hang, Serena, Clerk II. Lanouaoe
Qfilitr.e: Dr Gregory James, Director. Personnel: Miss
Mabel Lam, Senior Assistant Secretary.
Resignation:
Finance: Ms Ng Fung-ling, Clerk II. Regrading:
Computer Services and Telecommunications: Mrs Yao Lee Ching-Wah, Ophelia, from Senior Computer Officer to Principal Computer Officer.
From left to right: (front row) Yeung Kam-tong, Hung Charn-fai, Samuel Tse; (middle row) Joey Siu, Ku Wai-sang, Elena Chu;
(back row) Rachael Ip, Shirley Conway, Tsui Kam-ho.
ously he worked for Allon Secretarial Company.
TSUI KAM-HO, Chauffeur, came to HK UST from Sonca Products Ltd. His hobbies are sports and reading. YEUNG KAM-TONG, Chauffeur, was formerly employed by First City Investment Ltd. He enjoys reading, travelling and movies.
* The Genesis editorial board respects the right of any staff
member who does not wantto be introduced in this publication.
G
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i
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ll
y Speak
i
ng:
This Month: Scientific Management -
-
Chopping
3.
1. To be a good chef you must learn to chop Chopping can be therapeutic ...
Chopping is a form of technology Chopping is a form of science
Chopping your frustrations away Chopping your responsibilities away
4. . .. stop when you run out of fingers
ON THE
LIGHT SIDE
C
Scientific Management
April 1990
There has been a great deal of discussion about HKUSrs line management philosophy. In layman's terms, this can be thought of as the chopping block system. For every decision, someone's head must be on the chopping block. When the decision turns out to wrong, the offending head can be removed. It Is not altogether clear that this will produce clearer thinking when the next decision comes around, but that's the price you have to pay for scientific management. It was certainly a price the French were willing to pay during their Revolution.
Given the human predilection to imperfection, this system Inevitably evolves Into a second stage known as decapitated management. While line management is not always popular with academics, decapitated management is often very much in line with academic thinking.
To implement this system, of course, it is necessary to clearly establish the blame for everything that goes wrong. Urtortunately, avciding blame (sometiroos known as providing cover for one's posterior) has been raised to a high art. In a technological university, surely science can overcome art; which leads me to proudly present here my scientific method for the assignment of blame.
The method revolves around what us computer buffs call an algorithm, or procedure for arriving at an answer. The first step of the algorithm is to ask the V-C the following question whenever anything goes wrong: 'Do you accept the full blame for this fiasco?' If he answers 'yes,· the algorithm terminates and it's off with the V-Cs head. If he says 'no,' we then ask him "l/lhich of those reporting to you do we ask next?'
This method proceeds in an iterative process. We keep asking the same questions until one of two things happens:
1. Somebody accepts the blame, by answering "yes' to the first question, or
2. The anSVv'er to the second question is sometxxly who has no subordinates. Too bad for him.
In either case, the iteration terminates and a head can roll.
April 1990
What do you
see
in the
University Logo?
by
Catherine LaiDifferent people may read different things in the University logo. Here are some of the intended interpretations.
The logo is in blue and golden colours: the gold represents the sun, or a head, or a beaker, or a power transmission tower, and a body; and the blue represents water or a pair of shoulders, or an open book, and a pair of arms.
Taken as a whole, the logo looks like an anchor, suggesting stability and solidity; it also looks like a head over a trophy, suggesting victory over nature; it even looks like a shield; and it resembles a student scholar.
Looking at the individual components, one sees in:
• Head I Sun - head of a student or the golden sun rising from the sea.
* Water I Open Book I Shoulders -blue water from which the sun rises;
the shoulders of the student resembling an open book.
• Arms - pair of arms suggesting the letter "U".
Beaker I Power Transmission Tower I Body- the beaker representing
classical and basic science; the power transmission tower straddling
the ground, suggesting technology_and thefoundation for all modern
industry, and the body of the student.
• Body and Arms together- the "body" and the two arms suggesting the
Greek symbol q, "psi" which is one of the most important symbols in
modern physics; it is used to denote the "wave function" in quantum mechanics. Science is, therefore, represented in the emblem.
• Shoulders and Body together - providing the letter "T'.
In totality, UST is evident in the logo.
Cam pus Tour* Cam pus Tour* Cam pus Tour
The Off ices of Estates Management, General Administration and
Public Affairs are cosponsoring monthly tours of ourSai Kung
Campus. Un less otherwise specified,
all
tours will depart
from the 12th f Joor Office at 9;30
am on
the 4th
Saturday
of
each
month.
In case of rain, the tou-r shal 1 be postponed to the fol lowing Saturday. The tour w i 11 return to the WorldShip-ping Centre by lunchtime. Steve Wong (Estates Management)
and/or Bobby Sham (Public Affairs) will accompany the tours.
Due to space 1 imitation in the car, those interested intaking the
tour must register with the General Administration &
Com-mittees Off ice. Acceptance w i 11 be on a come
first-served basis.
The 1990 dates (al 1 Saturdays) for these tours are scheduled
as fol lows: 28 April, 26 May, 23 June, 28 July, I
Septem-ber, 295eptemSeptem-ber, 270ctoSeptem-ber, 24November, 29December.
For Sale
A limited number of HK UST Posters are available at the Office of Public Affairs for personal use at $22 each.
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•
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Rattan chest of drawers with brass handles, 36"x18"x30" (high). New and unused. (Ext. 3021448)
Wanted
A video camera for less than $1000. Contact Vicky Yau at 391-5163.
Pay Dates
The Finance Office has announced that pay dates for the next three months will be 27 April, 29 May and 28 June.
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:
Home Affairs:
•••••••••••••
The Hudson household doubled from two to four recently when Mike and Jean
took delivery of their own little right of
abode packages. Sophia and Kate, aged
6 and 8 months respectively, previously of Po Leung Kuk, are teaching Mike Can-tonese!
