Harassment case takes new turn

The sexual harassment case at National Chengchi University (政治大學) in which a professor was found guilty of harassing a female student by a university investigative team, has taken an unexpected twist, with the College of Sciences, of which the department is a part, voting earlier this week to reject a proposal to dismiss the professor concerned.

The university's Department of Land Economics, in which the harassment is alleged to have occurred, suspected that "inappropriate interference" to shoot the case down was involved in the college's decision.

The department decided to dismiss the professor on Sept. 13 after a university investigative report concluded that the student's accusations were true.

The department yesterday, however, said that it would appeal to the university against the College of Science's decision. Were it not to do so, the College's decision would stand and Lee Yong-jen (李永展), the professor, would remain in his post.

All proposals regarding university personnel must be considered by committees of the department, the college to which the department belongs, and the university. The higher-level college and university committees rarely reject the primary decision of the department.

The land economics department was therefore surprised at the turn of events in the case.

"It is incredible to us that the college did not take the decision to punish Lee by dismissing him, since the official investigation of the university has clearly found him guilty," said Ben Tai-ming (邊泰明), director of the land economics department.

Ben said the investigative team's report had discovered other cases of female students being harassed by Lee.

"A hubbub of rumors alleging his harassment of students has, in fact, been going on for years," Ben said.

Hsu Shih-jung (徐世榮), an associate professor in the department, said, "Female freshmen have long been advised to be aware of Lee by their seniors. But because victims will rarely stand up and lodge an official complaint, legal investigation by the university could not be carried out," he said.

Quoting the investigative report, the department said: "Sexual harassment by the teacher -- who is in a position of power -- ruined the learning environment and deprived the student of her rights while intimidating and distressing her, a fact which the university must seriously address."

The deliberative committee of the College of Social Sciences, however, shot down Lee's dismissal when eight out of 23 members voted against the proposal on Oct. 11th. Regulations stipulate that dismissals must be confirmed by two thirds of the attending committee members.

Ben and Lin Chiu-chin (林秋瑾), an associate professor in the department, said that as far as they knew, some voters on the college's committee suggested that the professor resign instead of being dismissed, although they "understoodd that he has been harassing students."

"This is very difficult to understand," Ben said. "Punishment should, without a doubt, be handed down if the members of the committee are convinced of Lee's indecency."

The department, therefore, suspected that there may have been "inappropriate interference" from "people who may benefit from a decision to smooth the case over."

The department said there were many clues to support such suspicions but that they did not wish to make much of them as yet in order to keep the focus of the case on the rights of students.