[NEWS] Korea University Lecturer Union Finally Voiced Out at the Main Square 

ByKim Mun Jeong (munjeongkim @ korea.ac.kr) 

On May 6, The Korea University Lecturer Union (KULC) held a press conference about thereinstatement of lecturers who were suddenly fired for not having a doctoratedegree. For one year and three months, part time instructorstook part of the tent sit-downs in front of the Main Building, demanding wage increaseand basic right protection of the part time instructors.

According to Korea University (KU) statutes, lecturers who do not have doctoral degree are able to teach classes when they have professors’letter of recommendation. Such statues were kept so as to give young lecturers who were scheduled to receive doctorate degrees valuable experiences to teach and to give a chance for students to be taught by specialists in the society who will be able to give realistic advice. However, because the new rules were applied,many part time lecturers were fired and led to the cancellation of classes.

“We have been demanding the reinstatement of suddenly fired lecturers from February. The school has been trying to demolish the tent sit-down and even told the part time lecturers to not hold banners or come back,” said Shin Hee Chul, the co-chairman of Seongbuk District partisan. By suddenly firing many part time lecturers, this led to cancellation of multiple classes in KU Sejong campus. Many students were not able to fill enough credits to register for the minimum number of credits and have classes that were overpopulated. In order to solve this problem, KU just filled classes with 44 physical education classes.

Such irresponsible actions shown by KU may show how indifferent the school is to the basic welfare of the students as well as the lecturers. KULC demanded the following three things: for Kim Byoung-Chul, the president of KU to take responsibility of taking away the rights of students to take classes, to reinstate lecturers and increase the basic wage of the lecturers. 

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