The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should not try to influence the results of National Taiwan University’s (NTU) presidential election and should respect the university’s autonomy, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said yesterday, amid allegations of academic misconduct by NTU president-elect Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) and a conflict of interest.
“Questions raised about the electoral system for university presidents should be discussed on a systematic level. The DPP should not interfere with universities’ operations,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) told a news conference at the legislature.
The KMT accused the DPP of running counter to democratic values when it on Wednesday filed a motion over the Ministry of Education’s budget in cross-caucus negotiations, proposing that Kuan’s inauguration on Thursday next week be delayed until the controversy has been cleared up, Lee said.
.Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Under the University Act (大學法), the ministry must hire any qualified university president who was elected legally, said KMT Legislator Ko Chih-en (柯志恩), who is also a member of the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee.
As the university notified the ministry of the election results earlier this month, the ministry’s job was to ascertain that Kuan, a KMT member, is qualified and that the election was legal, Ko said.
However, it has allowed the issue to drag on, she said, accusing the ministry of inefficiency.
She also asked why the ministry has repeatedly questioned the election results after the university’s presidential election committee issued clarifications to prove that the election was legal.
The ministry’s stance on the election differs greatly from how it acted on a dispute over the election late last year of Steve Kuo (郭旭崧) as president of National Yang Ming University, she said.
When questions were raised about Kuo’s qualifications, who was an associate professor, the ministry said it respected Yang Ming’s handling of its own presidential election, she added.
Addressing DPP allegations that Kuan plagiarized a graduate student’s thesis, Ko said that the student listed Kuan as the author of a manuscript she referenced in her dissertation.
She questioned the need for Kuan to cite his student’s work as a source in a paper he later published, saying that the DPP should clarify whose work was referenced.
KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (陳學聖) panned the DPP for attempting to reverse the election result by threatening to decrease the university’s budget.
“The DPP should immediately take its dirty hands off [the university],” Chen said.
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
WARNING: People in coastal areas need to beware of heavy swells and strong winds, and those in mountainous areas should brace for heavy rain, the CWA said The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday issued sea and land warnings for Typhoon Ragasa, forecasting that it would continue to intensify and affect the nation the most today and tomorrow. People in Hualien and Taitung counties, and mountainous areas in Yilan and Pingtung counties, should brace for damage caused by extremely heavy rain brought by the typhoon’s outer rim, as it was upgraded to a super typhoon yesterday morning, the CWA said. As of 5:30pm yesterday, the storm’s center was about 630km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving northwest at 21kph, and its maximum wind speed had reached
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said that it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Ragasa this morning and a land warning at night as it approached Taiwan. Ragasa intensified from a tropical storm into a typhoon at 8am yesterday, the CWA said, adding that at 2pm, it was about 1,110km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip. The typhoon was moving northwest at 13kph, with sustained winds of up to 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA Web site showed. Forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said that Ragasa was projected to strengthen as it neared the Bashi Channel, with its 200km
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Hualien and Taitung counties declared today a typhoon day, while schools and offices in parts of Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties are also to close Typhoon Ragasa was forecast to hit its peak strength and come closest to Taiwan from yesterday afternoon through today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Taiwan proper could be out of the typhoon’s radius by midday and the sea warning might be lifted tonight, it added. CWA senior weather specialist Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said that Ragasa’s radius had reached the Hengchun Peninsula by 11am yesterday and was expected to hit Taitung County and Kaohsiung by yesterday evening. Ragasa was forecast to move to Taiwan’s southern offshore areas last night and to its southwestern offshore areas early today, she added. As of 8pm last night,
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