To:
Kao Chiang
CC:
Student Affairs
President Kao Chiang
Office of the President
National Cheng Kung University
Tainan, Taiwan
cc: Ministry of Education, Department of Higher Education, Office of
Student Affairs
28 June 2003
Dear President Kao,
I have repeatedly contacted Dean Ko, of Student Affairs, concerning
the case of the student, Ms. Chen An-chuen, who
wrote a spiteful and secret complaint about a grade she received eight
years before. This complaint was used in my
dismissal hearings in 1999.
Before contacting a reporter this week, I wish to give you a final
chance to consider the issues.
A student's rights do not include the right to libel a professor.
A student has the right to challenge a grade, usually within
ten days of receiving it. In this way, the truth of the matter is
easily decided by outside parties.
Nobody, in law, is required to defend himself many years later when
it's impossible to do so. Otherwise a professor can
be dismissed simply by showing he once failed a student. Unless the
university defends such a policy, it should punish this
student.
But Dean Ko has failed to do so. As I recall, I received no
official response from her office concerning this matter.
Instead, she referred me to her vice-dean. But by law she is
responsible to me, even if her vice-dean is responsible to her.
The case is simple and simply resolved: A student wrote a secret
and spiteful letter accusing a professor and should be
punished.
A student with an honest complaint does not use spiteful language
or a secret letter or wait eight years to claim, with no
evidence, she unfairly failed a course.
In fact, when she phoned me to ask if she had failed, I pleaded
with her to take back her exam but she refused, saying:
"I see no point. It's history. I don't want to talk about it."
In 1994, hearing gossip I unjustly failed her, I phoned her. She
denied she was behind the rumor, saying, "Why would I
say something silly like that?"
To be sure, I sent her a five-page letter, suggesting I locate her
exam.
Next day, a colleague told me that Ms. Chen warned if I pursued the
matter she would contact a lawyer.
Ms. Chen claimed in court she failed unjustly and that I told the
chairman I destroyed the exam.
First, this former chair and now Dean of Liberal Arts, Professor
Ren Shyh-jong, has a history of misbehavior at our
university. He used unsigned and unofficial student evaluations to
libel me and effect my dismissal in 1994. When his
dismissal was reversed by a College committee, he admitted his dismissal
action was not deliberated by the committee.
Then he refused to appear at a hearing to investigate his use of
unofficial student evaluations.
If, as Ms. Chen claims, I told Professor Ren I destroyed the exam,
why didn't Professor Ren, then Chairman of our
department, investigate? If Professor Ren is telling the truth, then he
should be punished for failing to investigate. But if he is
telling the truth, why didn't he use Ms. Chen's grade to support his
dismissal action in 1994?
Because Ms. Chen's claims are untrue, as my letter in 1994 shows:
If I had destroyed the exam and told the chairman so, why would I
offer, in writing, to locate the exam? Why would Ms.
Chen refuse a chance to prove her claim?
The answer is clear to a reasonable person. Ms. Chen ignored my
letter because,
1. She believed I had her exam, and
2. She believed the exam would show she failed with cause.
With many chances to contest her grade at a formal hearing, Ms.
Chen chose to make a secret complaint so I couldn't
defend myself. Since her accusation was false, Ms Chen wanted secrecy.
There is evidence this student spoke falsely.
First, she hid important facts, such as receiving three high passes
from me the year she failed.
She denied taking these classes. After I showed grade records, she
claimed she forgot. Can a student forget passing
one class but remember failing another the same year?
In court, she said she was a superior student. Her grade
transcripts don't show this:
She received several just-passing grades of low 60s and many grades
in the 70s. As a graduate student, she received a
minimal passing grade of 70 in at least one class.
My grades were among her highest as an undergraduate, including a
90+. But she accused me over one failing grade, as
if students never failed before. (I failed one-third of her classmates
that year, and my colleague failed another third in the
make-up class the following year.)
This student claimed in court, under oath, that nobody asked her to
write her letter. But she admitted to Vice-Dean Tsai
that a university official asked for her letter. Either she lied in
court or she lied to Professor Tsai.
Usually the person telling the truth seeks a formal hearing. Ms.
Chen has avoided this, despite a request by the
vice-dean.
University officials accepted her secret letter, circulated it, and
used it at my dismissal hearings. The fact that my dismissal
was reversed does not protect Ms. Chen, who recently repeated her
accusation. Moreover, gossip continues that I unfairly
failed a student.
Therefore, this matter must be resolved at a formal hearing. I am
requesting a meeting for Monday, 30 June. The
meeting should include me, Ms. Chen, the current Dean of Liberal Arts,
Ren Shyh-jong, a dean from the Office of Student
Affairs, and a member of the Faculty Union.
At this meeting, Ms. Chen should explain why she wrote a secret and
spiteful letter eight years after receiving a grade. I
will ask she be formally censured and write a letter of admission and
apology. Then I will consider the case closed.
But university officials should explain why they accepted Ms.
Chen's secret complaint in the first place (based only on her
word) and why they delayed administrative remedy.
Please understand if I receive no response about a scheduled
meeting, as requested, I shall seek redress outside the
university.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Professor Richard de Canio
Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
National Cheng Kung University
(06) 237 8626
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