The university's response

Following is the procedure of hiring Deng Yaping: The department of physical education applied to hire her as a part-time professor, and the human resources department approved the application. Her main job is to help the university build a highly skilled table tennis team.

The university hopes that by hiring Deng it will further enhance the performance of its table tennis team and create a positive atmosphere for P.E. culture.

CUPSL, via its official sina microblog Dec 6

Suspicions not over procedure alone

Neither Deng Yaping nor the official who decided to hire her might have expected the move to arouse such a fierce response from both within and outside the university. Besides the student Xu Heng, several professors of the university, too, have opposed her appointment.

Chinese people love athletes and they are generous in their praise of glorious achievements. Deng has been given the honor she deserves as the winner of six world championships and four Olympic championships. The public anger, as such, is directed not against her but the lack of transparency on the part of the university's officials while making the decision.

A professor's post in a national university is rather important. In most universities in developed countries, it is the academic committee of professors that decides who should be hired, and all the faculties have the right to supervise the process. But in the China University of Political Science and Law, the entire process remained opaque until Xu issued the open letter.

Besides, the university runs on public funds and its main job is to improve law studies. Of course, the university has the right to build a table tennis team and train it for competitions, but that should not be done at the cost of normal activities. Hiring Deng means using resources and the university administrators are obliged to explain whether they shifted the resources from academics to hire Deng. Some analysts have even said the university leaders could even trade the part-time professorship in exchange for the influence Deng carries. The university should also clear such suspicions, or the doubts over the decision will continue to linger.

zhangzhouxiang@chinadaily.com.cn