Letter to Taiwan Ministry of Education

From:
9/1/2003 1:06 PM
Subject: Regarding Failure to Call a Student into the Office of Student
Affairs, at National Cheng Kung University, as well as other
abusesTo: moe
CC: Kao Chiang
BCC: Ray Dah-tong

Ministry of Education
Department of Higher Education

cc: Professor Kao Chiang, President of National Cheng Kung University

1 September 2003

Dear Officials at the Ministry of Education and the Department of Higher
Education,

I wish to inform you that for more than two years I have tried to get
the Office of Student Affairs to call a student in to inquire about a secret
letter she wrote against me. Despite repeated requests, to both Professor
Ko Huei-chen, Dean of the Office of Student Affairs and the president of the
university, Professor Kao Chiang, I have been denied this simple request.
To justify this denial, I have been given countless reasons, such as
the student does not want to come, the student's mother does not want her to
come, they do not have her phone number, they are "investigating" or
"gathering evidence," or a university lawyer advised against it.
These delays at National Cheng Kung University must stop. When it
takes more than two years for a dean to arrange a meeting with a student in
the Office of Student Affairs, then there are serious problems in terms of
university administration.
First, a professor has a right to request the Dean of Student Affairs
to arrange a meeting with a student, for whatever reason related to
university affairs.
Second, an Office of Student Affairs is established for the purpose of
student affairs, including teacher-student mediation. Therefore this office
is authorized to take any action against a student, based on ethical codes,
without the consent of courts or lawyers.
Third, a professor has a right to expect that officials at a
university, including a president and a dean, will act competently to
respond to such requests. Officials who do not respond promptly to the
needs of faculty should be dismissed. University officials represent the
needs of faculty, not the other way around.
Fourth, a university is governed by laws, not by lawyers or officials.
Officials at National Cheng Kung University must execute laws and
responsibilities, not "interpret" them or rely on lawyers to interpret
them. A lawyer is not authorized to be a Dean of Student Affairs or to be a
president of a university unless appointed to this office.
Therefore ultimate responsibility for execution of university and
national laws rests on individual officials. In some countries, lawyers who
advise obstructing justice can be subject to legal penalties as well as
disciplinary action by boards controlling legal ethics. A lawyer who
advised noncompliance with the law may be subject to penalties, including
disbarment. But this would not protect an official from individual
responsibility as well. An official can transfer duties, but not final
responsibility. Final responsibility rests with the official, as the
tragic case at Ho Ping Hospital showed.
We have laws in a democratic society. But those laws are useless if
lawyers or officials believe they can "interpret" laws themselves.
It seems that some faculty at our university are surrendering their
rights and responsibilities to officials. Officials, in turn, are abiding
by "interpretations" of what may be a single lawyer, undermining the whole
purpose of democratic governance of a university administration. Instead of
representing laws, many decisions seem to represent the interests of a few
officials and a lawyer.
Faculty should be in control of a university, not a lawyer. Laws
should be in control of a university, not "interpretations" of laws by a
lawyer.
In a democratic society, laws do not require interpretation. A law
that needs to be "interpreted" is not a constitutional law, which requires
transparency. If a law needs to be "interpreted," it removes power from the
law and places it in the hands of individual officials or their legal
counsel. But democracy is rule by laws, not lawyers. The alternative opens
the door wide to countless human rights abuses. Consider the following:
The university administration "interpreted" a final university appeal
to mean it wasn't final.
The university administration "interpreted" a final Ministry appeal to
mean it wasn't final.
The university administration "interpreted" the law to mean that
foreign teachers are not protected by rights of native teachers.
The university administration "interpreted" a Ministry of Education
Appeal ruling and eight warning letters in such as a way as to delay
compliance for more than two years.
The university administration "interpreted" a final appeal ruling to
mean accusations already rejected in that ruling can be revived.
The university administration "interpreted" a final appeal ruling to
mean the appellant is entitled to only half pay, even though he won the
appeal.
The university administration "interpreted" a final appeal ruling to
mean the appellant is not entitled to compensation, even though he won the
appeal.
With or without legal counsel, the university administration has failed
to punish a single official for misconduct, including circulating secret
letters at official hearings and ignoring countless Ministry regulations and
protections.
Either the university president is acting on the advice of a university
lawyer or he is acting alone. Regardless, as an elected or appointed
official, he should be held responsible.
I remind you once again that I am fully committed to upholding my
rights at National Cheng Kung University. I am fully committed to seeing
disciplinary action taken against this student, to receiving full salary and
compensation for my illegal dismissal, and to receiving a formal apology
from the university for official misconduct that resulted in my dismissal.
Moreover, until this case is resolved according to principles of justice, I
will continue to pursue all avenues and channels of remedy that are open to
me within the law.

Sincerely,


Professor Richard de Canio
Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
National Cheng Kung University
Tainan, Taiwan
(06) 237 8626