Fwd: Academic exchanges with National Cheng Kung University

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Richard John <rdca25@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 9 Oct 2010 17:10:46 +0800
Subject: Academic exchanges with National Cheng Kung University
To: presofc@lamar.colostate.edu

Dr. Tony Frank
Office of the President
102 Administration Building
0100 Campus Delivery
Fort Collins, CO 80523-0100
(970) 491-6211
presofc@lamar.colostate.edu

Dear President Frank,

In 1999 I was illegally dismissed from National Cheng Kung University
(NCKU) in Tainan, Taiwan. Though I won on appeal in January 2001, the
university refused to honor that ruling for nearly two and a half
years, until May 2003 (see attached letters).
To effect its dismissal, NCKU claimed foreigners were not
protected by Taiwan's Teachers Law. After I won on appeal, the
university claimed foreigners had no right to appeal in the first
place! This, of course, not only violated legal principles of
transparency (estoppel, etc.), but elementary principles of decency
and fair play. One wonders how Taiwanese would react if one of their
students passed his graduate exams and was then told his pass was
invalid because he was a foreigner!
Other than confirming my reinstatement, Taiwan's courts neither
awarded me compensation nor imposed penalties on the university. The
university for its part has refused to effect remedy according to
international principles of human rights, which includes the right to
an apology, compensation, and appropriate penalties against culpable
officials regardless of their administrative status. To this day it
hasn't even acknowledged doing anything wrong!
I don't believe an American university should maintain academic
exchanges with a university that violates principles of human rights
and equity under the law. I therefore urgently request that your
university terminate exchanges with National Cheng Kung University
until proper remedy has been made in my case, based on human rights
principles accepted by all democracies.
For further information on this case, please consult my blog at
http://rdca45.blogspot.com/

Sincerely,

Richard de Canio.