Letter to Dean of Student Affairs (22 July 2003)

Letter to Dean of Student Affairs
7/22/2003 1:44 AM
Subject: Regarding your failure to supervise a meeting between me and a
studentTo: Huei-chen Ko
CC: Control Yuan , moe ,
Kao Chiang
BCC: Ray Dah-tong ,
Paul

Professor Ko Heui-Chen,
Dean of Student Affairs
Office of Student Affairs
National Cheng Kung University
Tainan, Taiwan

cc: Control Yuan, Ministry of Education, Department of Higher Education,
Office of the President, NCKU

21 July 2003

Dear Dean Ko,

As you know, I have repeatedly requested that you set up a supervised
meeting between me and a student who wrote a spiteful letter.
Although I have been requesting either such a meeting or disciplinary
action against this student for what may be nearly two years now, I have
been denied this simple request.
It seems to me that every professor is entitled to request a supervised
meeting with a student, or there is no point to an Office of Student
Affairs.
As you know, in 1999 this student wrote a secret and spiteful letter,
accusing me of unfairly failing her eight years before she wrote her
letter. The letter was apparently solicited by officials who wished to
insure my dismissal and then secretly circulated at university hearings
upholding my dismissal.
The fact that this letter was even accepted, without questioin, by an
official at a university is, in itself, an outrage against legal, moral, and
academic standards. Apart from the violation of human rights, it places the
reputations of all professors who fail students in jeopardy, however many
years pass between the recording of a grade and a student's challenge of the
grade. It also undermines confidence in the sincerity of honest student
complaints, leading to a climate of mistrust and fear among both students
and faculty.
Finally, a teacher has a right to protect his reputation and a
university is bound, by law, to cooperate with him in doing this.
Apart from disciplinary issues, every teacher should have the right to
request a supervised meeting with a student, for whatever reason. It is not
your job to preempt the mediation process but to facilitate it.
I request yet again, that you set up a supervised meeting between me
and this student within days.

Sincerely,


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