higher@mail.moe.gov.tw
cymail@ms.cy.gov.tw
vp@mail.oop.gov.tw
eyemail@eyemail.gio.gov.tw
peu03@mail.gio.gov.tw
louwei.chen@msa.hinet.net
editor@it.chinatimes.com.tw
tahr@seed.net.tw
23 January 2003
I wish to expose long-standing human rights violations at National Cheng
Kung University which, although well known, continue and remain unpunished.
For the benefit of Taiwan citizens, I repeat the facts.
In March, 1999, the chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and
Literature, Lee Ching-hsung used secret and unproved accusations to dismiss
me.
To insure my dismissal, the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts
accepted a secret letter from a student claiming I failed her unjustly eight
years before.
At university hearings, the chair, Lee Chen-er allowed the secret
circulation of that letter to insure my dismissal, approved in June 1999.
Although the University Appeals Committee canceled my dismissal on 6
December, 1999, I was told that, as a foreigner I had to be reviewed again.
In a ruling dated 8 January 2001, the Ministry Appeals Committee
canceled my dismissal. The president of the university, Kao Chiang, defied
that ruling (and eight warning letters) for more than two years.
Instead, the university held more “review” meetings, repeating
accusations rejected in the Ministry ruling of 8 January 2001.
The university lawyer, Huang XXX, went to court claiming foreigners had
no right to appeal. Meanwhile, the personnel director, XXX and the
vice-dean of Academic Affairs, Fang XXX, warned me to quit the university or
the administration would contest the Ministry ruling for as long as
possible.
Pressured by the Ministry, the university issued retroactive continuous
contracts in May, 2003. Soon after, a College Review committee repeated
accusations already rejected on Ministry appeal. The University Appeals
Committee overturned this decision. The College Review committee ignored
this ruling, forcing me to appeal again. On 16 January 2003, as I’ve been
told, the University Appeals Committee accepted the College Review decision,
despite the Ministry ruling as well as that committee’s own ruling!
The university still contests compensation and full back pay, claiming
I’m not entitled to a teacher’s salary for the years of my illegal
dismissal!
Meanwhile, the student who libeled me is a graduate student and
part-time teacher at our university. For more than two years, the Dean of
Student Affairs, Ko Huei-chen, has refused to handle my complaint against
this student.
I have sent countless emails as well as formal complaints, in Chinese
and English, to the Ministry of Education, the Control Yuan, several human
rights groups, and the National Human Rights Commission, with no result.
University officials repeat their abuses with no respect for foreign
teachers, no regard for laws, and no fear of punishment.
Is Taiwan a democracy? Is it a nation of laws?
National Cheng Kung University is a tax-paid national school, subject
to national laws and penalties.
Officials who violate those laws should be punished.
A university without ethical standards has no foundation and therefore
no future: A final appeal must mean what it says. If accusations in a final
appeal can be revived after a ruling, final appeals are useless and there is
no remedy.
Forced to comply with the Ministry ruling, the university repeated
accusations rejected in that ruling, taking away the legal benefits of that
ruling, as if it never happened.
This is not only an issue of laws and human rights, but of moral
principles, right and wrong, and treating guests the way one expects to be
treated in host countries.
Do Taiwan students in America have to take another exam after passing
the final exam? Are Taiwan citizens denied the full benefits of appeal
rulings?
Where in the world could a president of a university defy a legal
Ministry ruling like Kao Chiang has without being dismissed from office and
subject to penalties?
What president of a university would argue, as Kao Chiang has, that
since I wasn’t teaching during the years of my illegal dismissal I’m not
entitled to teaching pay?
How can a lawyer advise noncompliance with a legal Ministry ruling and
not be subject to criminal and ethical penalties?
How can a lawyer contest a legal Ministry ruling after the ruling
favors the appellant?
Why would a university that has “sister universities” in democracies
like America and England claim that foreigners have no legal rights here?
What university would use administrative remedy as a tool of harassment
the way that National Cheng Kung University has done, claiming every time I
win an appeal that I must appeal again, in a process now in its fifth year?
What respectable university would hold secret meetings, make secret and
unproved accusations, circulate secret documents, and deny due process of
law?
What respectable university would refuse to punish a student who
secretly accused a teacher but act on a secret letter in less than three
weeks to dismiss a professor?
Why does the Taiwan government tolerate this kind of behavior?
Sincerely,
Professor Richard de Canio
Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
National Cheng Kung University
Tainan, Taiwan
(06) 237 8626
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