Dayeh University came under fire recently for allegedly threatening to dismiss an instructor over student complaints that she banned digital devices from the classroom, with the university later apologizing to the instructor after she filed a complaint with the Taiwan Higher Education Union.
According to a report by the Chinese-language Apple Daily, the university reportedly told instructor Lin Wan-hua (林婉華) not to “return [for work] next week and give back her appointment letter voluntarily,” following a dispute between Lin and a student over the use of digital devices in the classroom.
“Student satisfaction is our concern,” the university reportedly told Lin before suggesting that she resign, the report said.
The union, after building a case on Lin’s behalf, requested that the university establish an evaluation commission to assess Lin’s competence, union head organizer Lin Po-yi (林柏儀) said.
A commission meeting was convened on Tuesday last week, after which the university apologized to Lin Wan-hua, saying that it never intended to dismiss her, the report said.
However, College of Foreign Languages dean Chou Shih-guey (周碩貴) said that students had complained about Lin Wan-hua’s poor communication skills for three straight semesters. He said that he had asked a colleague to pass on his advice to Lin Wan-hua, who apparently mistook the advice as a threat to terminate her employment.
He said he had apologized to Lin Wan-hua, adding that he still hopes she will improve her communication skills.
National Chungcheng University associate professor of journalism Kuang Chung-shiang (管中祥) said that every university has its own regulations concerning employment and termination, and that a university must follow those regulations when dealing with such disputes.
More universities are seeking profit, treating students as their customers and educators as their salespeople, National Changhua University of Education professor Kuo Lee-an (郭麗安) said, adding that having to ingratiate oneself with students can curb a teacher’s enthusiasm.
The Ministry of Education should rein in the practice by setting up performance standards for universities, she added.
Lin Wan-hua refused to be interviewed, saying that she was “happy that it [the dispute] ended peacefully,” the report said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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