Tsing University President Gao Weiyuan was re-elected and went to the United States to find a job. Controversy broke out. Tsing University held its first administrative meeting since the start of the school today. During the meeting, four vice-presidents Lu Pingjiang, Zhang Xiangguang, Yan Daren and Qiu Bowen jointly signed a letter to the entire school's administrative meeting staff, calling on the administrative team to strictly abide by administrative neutrality. This matter should be returned to the legal system, and Tsinghua people should face the challenge together. If there are any systemic deficiencies, relevant revisions will be made.
Tsinghua University President Gao Weiyuan was controversial about his renewal and taking his job to the United States to find a job. Although Gao Weiyuan made a public statement on 9/10, many academicians including Lin Benjian, dean of the School of Semiconductor Research, also issued a statement last week calling on Gao Weiyuan to retire.
The four vice-presidents of Tsinghua University jointly signed a letter and sent it to the administrative council members of the entire university. The letter mentioned that President Gao Weiyuan’s participation in the selection of overseas university presidents after the start of his second term has aroused widespread discussion inside and outside the school, with various opinions expressed. Many academicians, selection committee members, senior teachers and alumni have expressed their opinions one after another. Teachers, students, alumni and all walks of life are looking forward to the stable development of the school. Some even express their confidence in the school with donations. Therefore, they call on the administrative team to abide by administrative neutrality and allow disputes to be fully returned to the school's existing legal system and democratic procedures for prudent handling.
Including when facing major matters, school affairs meetings are the legal mechanism to deal with the incident, and the role of the administrative team is to guard the process, not to influence the results. The statement also mentioned that maintaining the unity of Tsinghua University and free expression are the traditions of Tsinghua University. Disagreement of opinions is the normal state of the academic community, but it should not turn into tearing apart Tsinghua University. Emphasizing that no matter how the controversy evolves, Tsinghua University cannot delay its public functions such as teaching quality, academic research, students' educational rights and major construction of the school. The administrative team will perform their duties to keep the school running normally, so that the school can maintain a steady and orderly forward momentum during the process of system review and clarification of disputes.
Finally, it was emphasized that recruiting international talents is the tradition of Tsinghua University, but it has also discovered the shortcomings of the current system. The revision of the current system is already under development and will be discussed at the school-level meeting before being submitted to the school council for review. The direction of revision includes the information disclosure mechanism for principals to participate in job selections in other organizations during their term of office. When major disputes occur during the principal's tenure, a re-confirmation or review mechanism will be initiated.
