Taipei National University of the Arts president under fire for luxurious office

臺北藝術大學校長因豪華辦公室而遭批評

College denies neglect of older academic buildings


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The president of Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA) has come under fire for students after pictures of his new office appeared in a style magazine, reports said Saturday (June 1).

Verse devoted a report in its latest issue to Chen Kai-Huang (陳愷璜), the president of the university located on a hillside in the Beitou District’s Guandu area dotted with works of art. However, students failed to appreciate his office’s allegedly opulent decoration, the Liberty Times reported.

Allegations surfaced that several buildings on the campus were in dire need of repair, while student dormitories suffered leaks. The accusations that the college was spending more on its president’s office than on academic facilities led to TNUA issuing a statement Saturday.

As a national university, all budgeting was transparent, the school said, rejecting allegations that the president’s office included furniture from luxury brands. Suggestions from students were welcome, but blatantly untrue statements could be subject to legal action, TNUA said.

As a second vice president was appointed in 2017, Chen had decided to hand over his own office to his two deputies. A derelict storage room on the fourth floor of the same building was then converted into a new office for the college president.

As most campus structures dated back more than 40 years to the founding of TNUA, the school spent NT$68 million (US$2.09 million) last year on repairs of four different department buildings. During the summer, a two-year project budgeted at more than NT$100 million would start to fix the women’s dormitories, TNUA said.

Chen said the recent accusations showed that there had been a gap in communication between the college and its students. In order to clear up misunderstandings, he had formed a taskforce to discuss issues with the students, the TNUA president said Saturday.