don’t want to go into details, but I DID pull a mea culpa, talked of busyness and misunderstandings and just wanting to fix it, not blame anyone. No use.
How one, in this case me, loses their status is by being told the dealine for suspension paperwork to be in is right before finals, January 11, 2010 in this case.
I asked clearly for ALL relevant deadlines, yet they somehow forgot to tell me I had to sign a registration form and pay NT$212 in October. So, the registration deadline came and went, woithout me having a clue.
Now, they say I SHOULD have known this. Yeah, maybe, but I had never done academic suspension before, so, didnt occur to me to register, w/o taking any classes that semester.
If I SHOULD have known, the people whose full-time job it is to answer questions about these procedures definitely should have known. Or so youy would think, but not in Taiwan
So, when I went to do paperwork in December, well ahead of the deadline I had been told to pay attention to, they told me. Sorry, we cant help you, you lost your status, we tried our best to reach you, too bad.
don’t want to go into details, but I DID pull a mea culpa, talked of busyness and misunderstandings and just wanting to fix it, not blame anyone. No use, they have a couple fo axes to grind against me, where I won previous arguments and made a few people lose face (not by choice, but they pushed it, every goddamn time)
so, I am now considering options, ranging from walking away to a scorched-earth, MAD type of scenario. 
However, hopefully the path pursued will be somewhat more middle of the road, if that is still possible.
again, thx to all, esp ironlady for her incredible patience and support
UJ