*The image above is provided by the Sejong Campus Korea University Student Association (KUSA).

[NEWS]Problem Exacerbates for Sejong Campus

By Lee Hye Soo (hhsl_0814@korea.ac.kr)

At the end of February, Kim Youngkon (’68,Economics), the president of the part-time lecturers’ union, was denied courses to teach at Korea University (KU) of Sejong Campus. In protest, other lecturers and the 26th student union, Mahnsasotong,cried out against the school and demanded righteous reasons as to why Kim was denied courses. In response, the school gave three reasons, all of which had failed to support their action, including the reason of not having enough educational backgrounds.

However,as time went by, the situation seems to be exacerbating for Sejong campus. As a result of firing lecturers without Doctorate degrees, the number of courses for students has dramatically decreased; 18 general studies courses and 31 major courses have closed. The school has set up 47 courses related to physical education to compensate for the decreased number of courses. However, there is a 302%increase compared to last year in the numbers registering for the courses.

This drastic change in school courses has caused a chaotic situation especially for the students. According to the Sejong Campus Korea University Student Association (KUSA), there were students who were not able to register for the appropriate courses and could not get 17 credits, let alone 12 credits. For some students,they even had to consider skipping the semester. As a result, the school decided to get rid of the enrollment limit so that more students could take each course. However, if the number of students increases per class, then more problems could derive, such as how the classroom could be too small to hold all the students.

On March 18, the KUSA in Sejong Campus held a press conference in order to announce the outrage and indignation. Yong Min Jo (’08, Archaeology and Art History), the executive chief of Mahnsasotong said, “First of all, our goal is to make other fellow students be aware of the problem as much as we can. Also, the school keeps saying that they have solved the problem but obviously, there are still many things to be taken care of so we will keep on trying to communicate and protest until the school meets our demands.” 

http://www.thegranitetower.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=437