The president’s post at Da-Yeh University (大葉大學) in Changhua County’s Dacun Township (大村) has been vacant for almost a year. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) has criticized the Ministry of Education, saying it should have done more to fill the post. Fan suggested that the selection of a president at a private university should be the same as at public universities. In response, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said the ministry has been looking for a suitable person to be the acting president.
In 2005, the Legislative Yuan already proposed that a private university’s president should be selected in the same way as a public university’s president. How a selection committee would be formed should also be the same: university representatives, alumni and third parties from the general public should be proportionally recruited. However, the Ministry of Education has not yet implemented these regulations.
Da-Yeh University was founded more than 30 years ago. Most members of the public would agree that it is a reputable university. It has held the National Intercollegiate Athletic Games, and its students have won several awards from international contests, including the Red Dot Design Award. It is regrettable that in recent years, due to a succession of different presidents, the administration and staff of the university have been shifting. The university has been affected by this unstable situation, and its performance has been declining accordingly.
Da-Yeh University has been without a president since November last year, but without any regulation, the board members have failed to select a president and the problem has remained unaddressed. The main reason can be found in the Private School Act (私立學校法). Its Article 32 specifies: “Resolutions reached at board meetings shall be carried out only with over half the board members in attendance and over half the board members in attendance voting on them. Resolutions having to do with the following shall be carried out only with at least two-thirds of the board members in attendance and over half the board members in attendance voting on them: first, re-election and by-election of board members; second, election, re-election and by-election of the president; and third, employment or removal of the schoolmaster.”
The law specifies that the board members are entitled to select a president, and most members would not give up this right, but if a consensus cannot be reached at the board meetings, it would be extremely difficult to choose a president. Moreover, if some board members have an ulterior motive, or if the process leads to conflict and division, the university will certainly be negatively affected.
When Da-Yeh University was established in 1990, the government was supportive of the establishment of private universities — the more, the better. In Changhua County, examples include Chung Chou University of Science and Technology, Mingdao University, Da-Yeh University and Chienkuo Technology University. Chung Chou University of Science and Technology and Mingdao University have both been ordered to shut down by the Ministry of Education. Changhua residents would not want to see another private university meet the same fate.
Many lecturers and staff have remained loyal to Da-Yeh University. They want the board to keep the autonomy of the university intact. Hopefully, the family that contributed to the founding of the university can respect professionals and abide by the law. The board members should recognize the essence of the university, and students’ rights should be given priority. Only by doing so can the name Da-Yeh shine again.
Chang Huey-por is a former president of National Changhua University of Education.
Translated by Emma Liu
US President Donald Trump has gotten off to a head-spinning start in his foreign policy. He has pressured Denmark to cede Greenland to the United States, threatened to take over the Panama Canal, urged Canada to become the 51st US state, unilaterally renamed the Gulf of Mexico to “the Gulf of America” and announced plans for the United States to annex and administer Gaza. He has imposed and then suspended 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico for their roles in the flow of fentanyl into the United States, while at the same time increasing tariffs on China by 10
With the manipulations of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), it is no surprise that this year’s budget plan would make government operations difficult. The KMT and the TPP passing malicious legislation in the past year has caused public ire to accumulate, with the pressure about to erupt like a volcano. Civic groups have successively backed recall petition drives and public consensus has reached a fever-pitch, with no let up during the long Lunar New Year holiday. The ire has even breached the mindsets of former staunch KMT and TPP supporters. Most Taiwanese have vowed to use
As an American living in Taiwan, I have to confess how impressed I have been over the years by the Chinese Communist Party’s wholehearted embrace of high-speed rail and electric vehicles, and this at a time when my own democratic country has chosen a leader openly committed to doing everything in his power to put obstacles in the way of sustainable energy across the board — and democracy to boot. It really does make me wonder: “Are those of us right who hold that democracy is the right way to go?” Has Taiwan made the wrong choice? Many in China obviously
About 6.1 million couples tied the knot last year, down from 7.28 million in 2023 — a drop of more than 20 percent, data from the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs showed. That is more serious than the precipitous drop of 12.2 percent in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the saying goes, a single leaf reveals an entire autumn. The decline in marriages reveals problems in China’s economic development, painting a dismal picture of the nation’s future. A giant question mark hangs over economic data that Beijing releases due to a lack of clarity, freedom of the press