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Professors back
petition against school apology
By Hung Mei-hsiu and Jennifer Huang / Staff reporters
National Tsing Hua University
president Chen Li-chun speaks in Hsinchu County yesterday.
Photo: Hung Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
A petition launched by National Tsing Hua
University professors on Wednesday condemning the school for apologizing for a
student’s criticism of Minister of Education Chiang Wei-ling (蔣偉寧) has gathered
support from more than 80 professors as of yesterday.
Tsing Hua student Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷), a co-convener of the Youth Alliance
Against Media Monsters, was invited by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
lawmakers to attend a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture
Committee on Monday to discuss an e-mail circulated by the ministry on Nov. 29,
asking universities to “show concern” to students who took part in protests
calling on the government to review a consortium’s application to purchase Next
Media Group’s (壹傳媒集團)four media outlets in Taiwan.
During the meeting, Chen called the minister a hypocrite and a liar who does not
know remorse.
The university issued a press release on Tuesday, apologizing to the minister
and the public over Chen’s remarks, triggering protests from many students and
netizens.
Initiated by Shen Hsiu-hua (沈秀華), a sociology professor, the petition states
that the academics could not accept the school’s apology and do not understand
why it had to apologize.
The statement said the school should have protested against the ministry’s
e-mail to show its support for the student, rather than condemning the student.
Peng Ming-hui (彭明輝), a retired Tsing Hua professor, urged the public to listen
to Chen’s statement at the meeting in full.
“It’s truly worrisome that the public only pays attention to trivial things and
does not care about the bigger issues,” Peng said.
Peng said Chiang has never responded to the students’ appeals at various
protests. Instead, riot police were called to the protest sites and an e-mail
directed schools to “show concern” for students who took part in protests.
A petition campaign titled “Instead of Reprimanding Students, Let’s Protect
Democracy” (修理學生，不如守護民主) was also launched yesterday by a number of civic
groups, including Taiwan Democracy Watch and Taiwan Association for Human Rights
The petition demands that the ministry and all schools end all forms of
paternalistic monitoring of students, urges the legislature to amend laws to
remove all military officers from the ministry and all school levels, and calls
on universities to stop kowtowing to powerful political decisionmakers and use
feudal rhetoric such as “students should have manners” to discourage students
from engaging in public affairs.
Tsing Hua chief secretary Chien Chen-fu (簡禎富) yesterday acknowledged that the
school misjudged the situation in issuing the apology. Chien quoted university
president Chen Li-chun (陳力俊) as saying that he would speak to the professors and
the students before making public comments on the issue.
Additional reporting by Rachel Lin
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