Sunday, November 7, 2010

Fwd: Regarding false student accusations made against me in the 1999 dismissal.



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Richard John <rdca25@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 8:54 PM
Subject: Regarding false student accusations made against me in the 1999 dismissal.
To: em50000@email.ncku.edu.tw
Cc: hhhwung@mail.ncku.edu.tw, mail@ms.cy.gov.tw, tahr@seed.net.tw, tfd@taiwandemocracy.org.tw, hefpp@hef.org.tw, scholarsatrisk@nyu.edu, higher@mail.moe.gov.tw, lchsiao@taiwandemocracy.org.tw, em50030@email.ncku.edu.tw


Michael Ming-Chiao Lai
President
National Cheng Kung University
Tainan, Taiwan

November 7, 2010

Dear President Lai and Colleagues,

As you know, there is an outstanding case of a false student accusation made by Chen An-chun in a secret meeting in March 1999, as part of a dismissal action against me. That letter was later secretly circulated at "oversight" committees that upheld my dismissal. I was not even able to view the letter until I took the student to court.

The letter was clearly not a legitimate student complaint since it was made eight years after the disputed grade, in secret, and with obvious malicious intent to discredit a teacher. If the letter was a legitimate complaint it would have been submitted as a formal complaint through proper channels soon after the student received her grade so that the teacher could defend himself against the accusation. That was not done. Therefore the university violated the rights of an American professor and must be held accountable for the injury done to the professor under the circumstances, including discrediting his name and reputation and jeopardizing his employment as Associate Professor.

I remind you that the student submitted not a single piece of documentation to prove her accusations,and that accusations that could be verified were false. Moreover the letter went beyond a mere complaint about a grade in an attempt to discredit the teacher's character. This did not discourage university officials from secretly and shamefully circulating the letter as part of a so-called dismissal action.

No student has the right to submit a secret letter against a teacher. No student has the right to contest a grade eight years after the class. No student has the right to discredit a teacher without even a single document to support her accusations. No university has the right to circulate that letter. No university has the right to ignore such malicious misconduct on the part of a student, especially after disreputable officials at our university acted promptly in response to the student's secret and improper complaint.

No university has the right to ignore this case without proper administrative remedy, including punitive action against this student. The issue is complicated by the fact that this student is, according to the official National Cheng Kung University web page, currently employed as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at our university. I find it curious that in 22 years teaching at National Cheng Kung University the only student of mine who complained of a grade received employment status.

I strongly urge the president of this university as well as the faculty to take this issue seriously and to effect prompt remedy. It's a disgrace on the part of this university that a secret letter by a student is promptly circulated at official "oversight" hearings while a formal complaint against the student has been ignored. This is unacceptable.

The university must uphold human rights here and resolve this case at the formal level. The case started at the formal level when the letter was secretly circulated at several "oversight" committees and it must be resolved at the formal level, through the same committee process. The difference is this time the complaint will be a formal and legitimate complaint made through legal channels of remedy.

In any case, I have other legal options available to me if the university does not resolve this case at the formal level, including, through petitions of American human rights groups and advocates, effecting a termination of academic exchanges between National Cheng Kung University and American universities on the basis of human rights violations here.

It has fallen on my shoulders to protect the reputation of American professors in Taiwan and I intend to acquit myself of that responsibility with honor. No American professor will be discredited at a Taiwan university with impunity. We in the United States of America do not allow, much less encourage, this kind of treatment against Taiwan professors and professors at National Cheng Kung University should commit themselves to reciprocal protections and respect in the case of American professors.

Attached is a comprehensive summary of the student's actions. If I do not receive a sincere reply by Wednesday, 10 November, I will use other legal channels of remedy as insured by international human rights charters, American laws, and US university bylaws, charters, and statutes.

Sincerely,

Richard de Canio
Formerly Associate Professor
Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
National Cheng Kung University
Tainan, Taiwan

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