陳淑莊
By the end of July an alumni concern group had collected more than 3,000 signatures demanding the council stop delaying the decision. It was signed by numerous legislators and HKU alumni including Ip Kin-yuen, Sin Chung-kai, Alan Leong, Tanya Chan, Audrey Eu, Paul Zimmerman, Joseph Wong, Anson Chan, Andrew Wong, and others. Mathieson complained that he and others who had backed the appointment of Johannes Chan as pro-vice-chancellor had been subjected to "orchestrated" pressure by some political elements, his personal emails having been hacked and some of it published in pro-Beijing media.