Three former National Taiwan University (NTU) presidents yesterday criticized the government for not approving the appointment of NTU president-elect Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) and undermining university autonomy.
It has been almost 50 days since the ministry received documents about Kuan’s election and the delayed appointment has caused great anxiety among faculty, students and alumni alike, former university president Sun Chen (孫震) said at a Lunar New Year event hosted by the university.
Kuan was originally scheduled to take office on Feb. 1, but the Ministry of Education put his appointment on hold due to allegations of plagiarism and a conflict of interest that cast doubt over his eligibility.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Sun blamed President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) — an NTU alumnus — for Kuan’s delayed appointment and said that every major policy her administration has promoted “has been damaging to the nation.”
“Is her next step aimed at causing damage to her own school? Or Taiwan’s academia, including all 21 members on the NTU presidential selection committee?” Sun asked.
The Tsai administration has already lost credibility because of its poor policies and it is now risking losing more trust and respect from the public by not approving Kuan’s appointment, he said.
Former university president Chen Wei-jao (陳維昭), who doubles as convener of the school’s presidential selection committee, said the ministry was disregarding regulations and disrespecting university autonomy.
“This is the darkest time for university democracy and academic freedom,” he said. “We must work together to safeguard academic freedom and eventually the school shall triumph.”
The university should preserve documents related to the election to preserve this moment in its history, he added.
Former university president Lee Si-chen (李嗣涔) called on Tsai to stop the education ministry from interfering with university autonomy and abusing its power.
“The ministry has tortured NTU for more than a month,” he said, adding that university autonomy was “on the verge on dying.”
Former university president Yang Pan-chyr (楊泮池), who stepped down in June last year after he became embroiled in an academic fraud scandal, did not explicitly comment on the election, but said that he hoped the university could soon “leave all its troubles behind.”
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS