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NTU tells ministry to move out

"The ministry said it is going after the Chinese Nationalist Party's [KMT] illegal assets out of a sense of justice. But it is an irony that the ministry has refused to return the building that is rightfully ours."

Song Shun-lian, an officer with National Taiwan University's School of Pharmacy Alumni Association

The tables turned on the Ministry of Education yesterday when a group of National Taiwan University (NTU) alumni demanded the ministry either move out of its current office building, which they claim belongs to the school, or cough up NT$2 billion (US$61 million) in rent for occupying the building for the last 36 years.

The ministry responded that the property belongs to the government and therefore the school has no say in how the property should be used.

"The ministry said it is going after the Chinese Nationalist Party's [KMT] illegal assets out of a sense of justice. But it is an irony that the ministry has refused to return the building that is rightfully ours," said Song Shun-lian (宋順蓮), an officer with NTU's School of Pharmacy Alumni Association.

The 7,776m2 building next to the National Taiwan University Hospital and the Legislative Yuan building on Zhongshan S Road, was erected 36 years ago by the university's School of Pharmacy in the College of Medicine.

In 1971, Sun Yun-shou (孫雲壽), then head of the School of Pharmacy, agreed to loan the building to the minister of education at the time as a personal favor.

The alumni association said that the ministry was supposed to return the building nine years ago.

The ministry reportedly not only refused to honor the deal in July, but demanded unlimited use of the building, claiming that the government has sole control over any public buildings.

Liu Yi-chuan (劉奕權), head of the ministry's Department of General Affairs, said one solution would be for the school to ask for a construction subsidy after it finds a suitable place to erect its own building.

Another possible solution was for the ministry to find a new location.

Liu said the ministry was simply following the counsel of the government that ownership and management rights over any publicly owned building must belong to the same entity.

"It does not make sense to have NTU own the building while we manage it," he said.

"It would be in contradiction to the government's recommendations," Liu said.

Song said the alumni ssociation understood there was only a slim possibility that the ministry would back down from a fight.

"We just hope the ministry will stop ignoring the association's invitation to hold an open debate on issue," she said.
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