Chinan under borrowed roof

Students of the partially-damaged National Chinan University (NCNU; 暨南大學), located in Puli Township, Nantou County, yesterday restarted their courses after relocating temporarily to National Taiwan University in Taipei. The move has sparked a controversy over whether the university should have remained in Nantou to help with reconstruction work.

Many students and teachers said they supported the decision made by university president Lee Chia-tung (李家同) to restart the new semester in Taipei. Still, criticism over the decision to move the university's classes to Taipei for four months was also heard yesterday. One professor from the University, accompanied by DPP legislator Tsai Huang-lang (蔡煌瑯), said the decision had affected the job security of some teachers who preferred to stay in Nantou.

Six of the university's nine buildings were destroyed or partially destroyed by the September 21 earthquake. Students in the school's dormitory were evacuated on the third day after the disaster occurred. Lee Chia-tung, announced last Wednesday that university operations would resume in Taipei.

But this move soon drew criticism. Legislators last week blamed Lee for what they said was a lack of social responsibility towards the university community, and called on him to step down. Members of the watchdog Control Yuan have also began to investigate the matter.

At Luming Hall, part of Taipei's National Taiwan University, 2,200 students from the National Chinan University yesterday registered for their new academic semester, which offered 600 courses.

Responding to criticism, Lee Chia-tung said he had considered whether there may have been a better way to deal with the situation. But he said he did not worry about the pressure over asking him to leave.

"I'm sure the days of political oppression have passed and that the government can now accept opinions different from its own," he said.

?Tsen Mei-fang (曾美芳), a history major, said: "These days, watching the media, we can hear many voices from Puli residents telling the university what it should do. But we want to hear the opinions of students," she said.

"We are not running away from Puli. If we stayed there, we would be dependent on food and material supplies, just like local residents. We don't want to be another burden of the community," said a student surnamed Lin of the Public Administration Department.

"We don't want society to misunderstand our president," said another student, surnamed Chen.

"During the first two days after the earthquake, we were only distributed a single steamed bun for the whole day. And we kept looking above to see if we would receive air drop supplies -- yet nothing was dropped to the campus," she said.

A declaration by deans from the three academic schools at the university also echoed the opinions of many of the students.

After the quake, university authorities successfully evacuated students from the destroyed buildings, and quickly resumed academic operations in Taipei. This, they said, ensured the safety of students, teachers and staff, and also secured students' rights to an education.

Other professors said the move to support the university did not mean ignoring the community. "We will always be together with Puli Township," said Hsiang Jay (項潔), dean of the Science and Technology School.