| Subject: National Chiayi University |
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Date Posted: 13:55:28 08/10/05 Wed
In 2003-2004, I was working as a full-time English instructor at National Chiayi University. Overall, I found the English department to be chaotic and extremely unprofessional. Here are a few examples of what I experienced working there:
1) In early 2003, when I was working at another school, the hiring committee called me without warning at work to have an interview. They were very friendly and polite, but didnīt seem to realize how thoughtless it was to call me out of the blue at my work number to conduct a job interview.
2) I was told by the English department staff during the summer of 2003 that the department was going to process my work visa/ARC Card for the fall semester. However, in September, when I started work, they hadnīt done anything, and I had to wait several months to get my work visa processed. Foreign teachers without an official ARC card in Taiwan cannot apply for a phone line in their apartment and cannot open a bank account.
2) The English department committee held a bizarre interview (more like an interrogation) for the new teachers during the spring semester. The committee members had looked over student evaluations, and asked lots of questions based on only the negative comments, ignoring any positive comments. Previously, I had read over the student evaluations, and I knew that students said many good things, but these were not discussed. During the interview, committee members seemed to focus on the studentīs worst complaints, but never discussed lesson planning, methodology, teaching techniques, or anything remotely related to the work I was hired to do.
3) Around midterms, I asked the director about when I was going to sign a contract for the next year. He promised me that I was guaranteed a contract for the next year. Eventually, I signed a contract in his office. However, during the week of finals, at the end of June, I was told by a member of the staff in the English department office that the university was holding a final meeting to decide if they were going to give me a contract. They were holding all of the paperwork for my contract and visa renewal "just to make sure." I called the director of the English department to talk about this, and he just said "Well, maybe you can ask the committee to have the meeting earlier next year." I explained to him that the universityīs refusal to submit the paperwork caused many problems for me. I was going to have to get a new visitor visa during the summer, and re-apply for a new work visa, both of which I would have to pay for out of my own pocket. He seemed completely apathetic to my problems. Finally, I quit, on the day before the university held their meeting. On the day of the meeting, I got 2 very cold e-mails from the director and the dean of humanities, who told me that I was "too sensitive" and reminded me that I got "many negative evaluations" from my students. No explanation or apology about the contract.
4) There is a strong feeling in the English department that the people who are on the committee matter, and anyone who is not a committee member does not matter. The committee is very poor at communicating important matters to people outside of their circle.
I would recommend that teachers reading this do not apply for work at this university. There are much better universities to work for in Taiwan.
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