To Department of Academic Freedom and Tenure

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	Any advice on details? One question: did it take "years" to see L's letter or just a year?
Date:	Tue, 06 Oct 2009 01:49:31 +0800
From:	rdca25@gmail.com
To:	Raydon <raydon@mail.ncku.edu.tw>

Department of Academic Freedom and Tenure
American Association of University Professors
1133 19th Street, NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20036

Dear Professors,

Thank you for your interest in this case. I want to sum up why I think the case is important:

   1. National Cheng Kung University is a high-ranked university in Taiwan, which makes its human rights violations of international concern. Furthermore it has numerous academic exchanges with American universities and should therefore be bound by shared principles of legal rights.
    2. The university's actions went far beyond a violation of human rights and defied basic principles of fair play. Surely no reputable academic institution would participate in an appeal then challenge its ruling just because it lost!
    3. The university's dismissal action was egregiously improper to begin with, including the circulation of a secret letter I was not allowed to view except by court order years later.
    4. The university's subsequent appeal process was a charade, since it circulated the secret letter. At one hearing, the chair defiantly refused to reveal the contents of the letter!
    5. When the university reversed the decision (for technical reasons) the case was returned to the department for "more proof," though the dismissal should have been canceled. The university argued foreigners had no employment rights (a claim rejected by the Ministry of Education). The university hearings were presumably a dilatory tactic intended to outlast my short-term visas.
    6. After the Ministry of Education reversed the dismissal action in January 2001 the university defied the MOE ruling claiming foreigners had no right to appeal, though the university participated in the MOE appeal process and even held its own appeals.
    7. The university president, Kao Chiang, defied the Ministry of Education ruling for more than two years, from January 2001 to May 2003, despite eight warnings letters from the MOE (previously attached) and even letters from the US-based human rights group, Scholars at Risk (previously attached).
    8. In the meantime, two officials argued the university would delay the case in the courts indefinitely unless I resigned at half pay.
    9. Even after reinstatement the university held hearings to impose penalties, despite the Ministry ruling in my favor. These penalties were reversed by the MOE.
    10. No official has been punished, either by the courts or the Ministry of Education, though documentation of abuses is transparent (see documents previously attached). Even after university president Kao Chiang defied the MOE for more than two years, he was approved for another three-year term.
    11. Though I periodically email documents and a cover letter to department colleagues, I've been ignored. These are the same faculty probably lauded as beacons of Taiwan's democracy when they present at international conferences.
    12. I have not received a formal apology from the university or compensation, nor did the courts award damages. Yet the case interrupted my academic career for four years, involved numerous trips abroad to renew short-term visas, and cost me and at least one colleague countless hours reading dozens of official documents, translating them, writing letters, and attending numerous university and court hearings. From what I learned at another college, this case was actually used at the MOE's orientation sessions for new college officials on what not to do in a dismissal action!
    I don't think American universities should approve academic exchanges with a foreign university that behaves in this manner. Surely American universities must regulate its academic exchanges abroad. Surely Taiwan is not above international laws of human rights and principles of fair play.

    Sincerely,


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