Letter to the Control Yuan

Control Yuan
Taipei, Taiwan

cc: Ministry of Education, Department of Higher Education

20 July 2003

Dear Sirs

I hereby formally request administrative punishment of the following
officials who violated proper procedures at National Cheng Kung University,
undermining the law and with grievous injury to a professor.

1. Professor LEE HSIANG-HSIUNG held a closed meeting using secret and
uninvestigated accusations to effect my dismissal in March, 1999. Although
Professor Lee has transferred to another university, he should be held
accountable for his actions at our university.

2. Professor TU YUNG-CHING while Dean of the College of Liberal Arts
in 1999, accepted a secret letter from a student disputing a grade eight
years earlier. Allowing a student to dispute a grade received eight years
earlier is in itself absurd. In addition, the accusation was secret and
accepted on no other basis than that the student vowed her claim was true
and she would repeat her claim in court if asked. If I told Professor Tu I
would repeat in court my claim that I was Santa Claus, I suspect he would
believe I was Santa Claus. Either Professor Tu sincerely believed this
student, in which case he is guilty of incompetence; or he collaborated with
Professor Lee Hsiang-Hsiung to insure my dismissal, in which case he is
guilty of malicious misconduct. Either way he should be punished.

3. Professor LEE CHEN-ER, chaired university hearings on my dismissal
and allowed the student letter to circulate secretly. Professor Lee should
be held accountable for this.

4. Professor KO HUEI-CHEN, currently Dean of Student Affairs, has
repeatedly declined my attempt to hold a meeting between the student who
wrote a secret letter and myself in the Dean's office. This is an attempt
to obstruct administrative remedy at our university and is unacceptable.
Her vice-dean, Professor JAMES TSAI, has also prevented a meeting between me
and this student. Apart from proven misconduct, a teacher has a right to
have a supervised meeting with a student for any reason whatsoever.
Officials who are unable or unwilling to do their jobs, according to law,
should be dismissed.

5. Professor KAO CHIANG, currently president of our university, should
be held accountable for the university defying a Ministry appeal ruling for
more than two years, undermining confidence in law at our university,
harming the reputation of our university, and costing taxpayers millions of
dollars.
He should also be held accountable for a university hearing in May
2003 at which I was accused of offenses already rejected in the Ministry
Appeal ruling of 8 January 2001. This meeting undermined the legal
benefits of the Ministry ruling and violates my rights as well as the law.
Finally, Professor Kao should be held accountable for repeated delays
in full administrative remedy and compensation for my illegal dismissal in
1999, including a formal apology and full retroactive salary.
If Professor Kao can defy the Ministry of Education for two years, he
cannot claim to be following "proper procedures" by delaying administrative
remedy for my illegal dismissal in 1999. If within days following its
belated compliance with the Ministry ruling, the university was able to
convene a meeting to repeat accusations already rejected in that ruling,
obviously the university can act as quickly to enforce justice as to defy
it.
But under color of law, a handful of officials are dictating policy at
our university. This is not the right way to run a university and this is
not the right way to advance education in Taiwan. The best teachers from
abroad will not improve education in Taiwan if offiicials collaborate in
misconduct and obstruct administrative remedy.

Sincerely,


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