The Ministry of Education yesterday said it is to hand over Deputy Minister of Education Benson Yeh’s (葉丙成) handling of a gender inequity case at National Taiwan University (NTU) to the Gender Equity Education Committee for a formal investigation.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators from the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee in a joint statement yesterday morning condemned the ministry’s response to the case as deeply unprofessional and lacking oversight, demanding an external investigation by the equity committee.
Yeh last month on Facebook allegedly disclosed details of the case, gave personal commentary and risked exposing the identity of the student involved.
Photo: Rachel Lin, Taipei Times
The ministry said the equity committee, consisting of independent experts, would conduct an impartial investigation.
Yeh, also a professor at NTU’s Department of Electrical Engineering, shared a post on Facebook on April 21 containing screenshots of WeChat messages that allegedly disclosed sensitive information.
He has since edited the post and removed or censored the screenshots, but the affected student said in the comments: “Surely you know that campus safety reports must be kept confidential?”
The post amassed more than 12,000 reactions and 700 comments, with many asking him to apologize.
“In the future, I will make a clearer distinction between my role as professor and deputy minister,” he said, in a comment.
The lawmakers said that in a separate case last year, the Control Yuan found that NTU had failed to protect students after a sexual harassment incident was exposed, which led to safety concerns for the student involved.
Following the investigation, the ministry and NTU were issued corrective actions, they said.
However, the ministry has failed to implement these corrections or supervise NTU in improving its systems and procedures, leaving students in an “unsafe learning environment,” they said.
In response to the inequity case, DPP members of the Education and Culture Committee said they twice sent formal letters to the ministry to call for an investigation, on April 25 and May 9.
The ministry has since failed to recognize the seriousness of the incident or release details of the personnel involved, they said.
According to Article 41 of the Gender Equity Education Act (性別平等教育法), the ministry is required to clearly explain its investigation process and disclose whether conflict-of-interest protocols were followed, they said.
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
RSS