本校台灣視障生洪國展致校長請願信

[uwmadison]

下列內容為本校台灣視障生洪國展致校長請願信
文中對國展這半年來求學過程的種種有較詳細的講述
希望同學讀後會更加了解我們舉辦連署活動支持國展的立場


Dr. Carolyn “Biddy” Martin

Chancellor, University of Wisconsin-Madison
161 Bascom Hall
500 Lincoln Drive
Madison, WI 53706

January 15, 2010


Dear Chancellor,
I am a blind student from Taiwan. I received the law school’s admission last March and entered the Master of Laws-Legal Institution (LLM-LI) program last September. One month ago, on the eve of Christmas, the law school decided to discontinue my status as a law school student on the belief that it is impossible for me to improve my English to the level that is necessary for law school courses. This decision has put me into a very difficult and almost disastrous situation. As a J-1 student, I will soon lose the financial support from the Taiwanese government, and, as a visually impaired student, I will be very likely to lose the only opportunity in my life to improve myself to the extent that I can compete equally with general people. I am now writing this letter to appeal this decision. While I do not question people’s willingness to help me, I believe that the law school and the ESL program made inadequate evaluation of the situation before I came here and did not provide sufficient resources for me after I arrived. I hope you could reinvestigate the situation, and all I am asking for is a chance to stay here for one more semester as a law school student so that I can apply for and transfer myself to other law schools next fall. During this time, I will not expect to take any law school courses but hope to take some ESL courses and one law-related course to maintain the Taiwan governmental funding and keep working on my English skills.

I am also writing this letter with the hope that my story serve as a bitter lesson for the university. I understand the whole situation has made all parties involved feel unhappy and stressed, but I have to point out that so many parts of the school system has misjudged the situation. I received admission from this law school last March. The admission was a conditional one and I was asked to take ESL courses in summer. Before I decided to accept the admission, I myself was worried about my own English capacity. I even planned to defer the admission for one year and stay in Taiwan to improve my English. To make a better decision, I contacted both the law school and the ESL office to see if they have necessary expertise and experience to accommodate blind students. Both institutions responded positively that they have enough experience and resources. Based on their responses, I decided to attend the UW-Madison and gave up admissions from other law schools. I truly believed in their words that I will be assisted by highly qualified people with adequate resources. After I came here, however, I surprisingly discovered that most ESL teachers have no experience of teaching blind students, and the result was almost embarrassing. For example, I was asked to answer practice questions as quickly as my fellow students. It was unrealistic for me because I was not given the Braille version of the class materials, and even if I was, Braille-touching approach naturally requires more time to locate, understand, and answer the questions. I soon realized that nobody here really understood the need of the blind. Many ESL teachers even forgot to speak all the information that they wrote on the blackboard, which I have definitely no way to understand. ESL then made the judgment that I cannot survive in law school, and sent the evaluation to law school.

Based on the ESL evaluation, the law school graduate program director Prof. Charles Irish, at our first meeting last August, suggested me to transfer to another law school. At our second meeting he told that if I want to stay, I must sign a contract with the law school that I only take two courses in my first semester and if I do not get at least C on both courses, I will not be allowed to enroll for the spring semester. In the end, I was given a C+ in the Introduction to American Law, a course in which I compete with other students fairly in finals, but was failed by Prof. Irish for the Directed Reading class which I met one-by-on with him every week with no final. As a visually impaired student, I do not receive an F because I am lazy or unwilling to learn. Both Prof. Irish and my fellow students recognize my hard work. I am failed because the law school makes the judgment that with my disability, it is impossible for me to improve my English to the required level. I felt betrayed by this decision. I was honest all along with the law school about my English capacity but was recommended to come here early with the guarantee that I will receive necessary assistance. However, the assistance never materialized and I was then being judged based on my poor performance, and now I am forced to go home because of my English, which is a fact that I have always been honest with the law school.

I also believe that the requirement to sign and the content of the contract is unjustifiable. Before I came here, I asked the law school whether my performance in the ESL program will affect my admission. Law school told me that the ESL report will have no influence on my status as a law school student. But after I came here, the law school suddenly asked me no make a contract that limited my rights as an admitted student. Moreover, I was deprived of the second chance that has been given to every ordinary student.When an ordinary graduate student gets an F, he or she has the opportunity to compensate the poor performance.Under the contract, however, my second chance was taken away right from the beginning. It is difficult for me to understand that since I followed all the procedures and satisfied all the application requirements, why I should be specially treated, especially by those limitations that I never heard of when I was applying for this law school? The timing to end my study is also devastating. If I cannot maintain the student status in the spring semester, I will soon lose my financial support from the Taiwanese government, which requires J-1 students to maintain continuous student status during their study here. Without such funding, the financial situation of my family is unable to support me even if I get admission to other law schools. In fact, if nothing changes, I will be forced to leave the United States in a few weeks. All I am asking for is a chance for me to maintain my student status in the spring semester so that I could apply and transfer to other law schools. It is my humble wish to improve English and learn more from this great university and wonderful nation. As a blind student who has being rejected equal opportunity by the Taiwanese society throughout his life, a seemingly small opportunity can be tremendously transformative. It will change my life and allow me to truly compete with ordinary people. I sincerely appreciate your time reading this email and wish my humble request can be granted.


Respectfully submitted,

Kuo-Chang (Bruce) Hung
608-770-1734