Letter to Scholars at Risk (New York)

Robert Quinn
Director
Scholars at Risk Network
http://scholarsatrisk.uchicago.edu

c/o Human Rights Program
University of Chicago, Pick 124
5828 South University Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
tel: 773-834-4408
fax: 773-702-9286
e-mail: rquinn@uchicago.edu

25 September 2000

Dear Dr. Quinn,
Enclosed are scanned images from the 1994 publication of the Faculty
Union (then, Faculty Association) of National Cheng Kung University.
The publication included the attached complaint against the chairman of
the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, following the illegal
and unethical dismissal of a foreign (American) professor in 1994.
Fortunately, thanks to the assiduous intervention of members of the
Faculty Union, the illegal and unethical dismissal was overturned, but just
barely (with only the minimal three votes necessary to overturn it).
Unfortunately, the fact that these violations not only took place but
were actually repeated, in a second dismissal action in 1999 (still
pending), suggests the indifference of university faculty to basic ethical
norms and democratic rights.
The complaint attached here explains (in Chinese and English) the nature
of the abuses involved, quoting relevant university laws and statutes
violated in the dismissal action.
It will be seen that the violations involved were basic human rights
violations, including the right to be informed of accusations, the right to
an open hearing, the right to defend onself, and the right to challenge
libelous or defamatory accusations, especially concerning one's moral and
professional reputation.
The officially published complaint shows that evaluations used against a
foreign professor were used in a highly selective, thus discriminatory,
manner, regardless of the suspect provenance of the evaluations.
In addition, of course, the evaluations were maliciously and secretly
solicited, secretly disseminated, and used to discredit and dismiss the
professor without the slightest regard for the professor's basic human
rights and reputation.
It should also be pointed out that, amazingly, although the dismissal
was technically reversed, the chairman was never punished or formally
censured and the professor never received an official apology for defamatory
actions against him, actions that would be considered criminal in most
democratic societies.

Sincerely,
Richard de Canio.