SNU protests, a students view.

Today during lunchtime i got down to the administration building and wanted to know what students there are thinking, what motivates them and what they hope to achieve. Here is the transcript of a small ad-hoc interview with one of the students occupying the administration building:

Alex: Hello, my name is alex and im just curious what you are doing. So what are you doing?

Roah: We try to put a halt to the privatization of the SNU because of its characteristics, the privatization itself is wrong, and at the same time the way that it is implemented is also wrong. The university hasn't considered the students opinion on the privatization and they are not following the due course. Thats why we try to put a hold on it.

Alex: Can you tell a bit more in detail what you think is wrong about the privatization of SNU?

Roah: In my personal opinion if this university becomes a corporation, those departments that make money would be enlarged and those that can't would be reduced. Because after the university becomes a corporation they can pursue profit for them selfs without intervention from the government. i don't really know well about the specifics, but im pretty sure about the thing about the profitable and unprofitable departments.

Alex: Under which circumstances would you say i'm satisfied? What would be a reasonable outcome for you. When would you say 'now its enough, i will go home'?

Roah:  First of all the law that is enforcing this corporation should be revoked. If that law is revoked than the privatization committee is obsolete. If the law would be revoke that would be enough.

Alex:  what do you think about the demand for the 50% cut in overall tuition fees? Is that a reason why you joined here, or is that a separate issue?

Roah:  Personally i think there is some correlation, but its not highly correlated

Alex: So that is not your objective right now?

Roah: Thats right.

Alex: What do you think will be the outcome here? Will you succeed or will you fail?

Roah: I hope that we get some results in this month. If there are no results until july, i think i will be a bit hard for us to continue because the number of students who are interested in our cause are decreasing, we are loosing some initiative and there aren't many events, that we can use to mobilize students to participate in this more, during july and august. I think it will end in this month, after this it will be a bit hard for us.

Alex: And the last question, what was your personal reason to join?

Roah: Personal reason?

Alex: Were you outraged by the injustice, or were your friends joining, so you joined too. what was your personal motivation?

Roah: Im not really, like, outraged about this, but i think its wrong, it hasn't followed due course, and i was disappointed by how the administration reacted to out attempts to talk with them. I think these are the main reasons.

Alex: Sorry that wasn't the last question, the really last question is: would you consider yourself more conservative or more liberal? left wing, right wing... whats you general political orientation?

Roah: (laughs) Trying to be liberal.

Alex: Thank you for your time.

p.s. to avoid possible repercussions, the student who gave the interview chose Roah as his nickname. 

Protests at Seoul National University

This is a topic which is a bit underrepresented in the english media in korea. Since a few month there is a controversy raging whether SNU should become a corporation or remain under government control. The cooperation way is favored by the SNU president and the current korean government while the other solution seems to be more popular with the students. There are basically two arguments: competitiveness / quality of education vs. Tuition fees. The corporate side claims that a university free of government control can become more competitive, acquire more money which also will lead to better education. The examples they offer are often the ivy league universities in the states. This argument is often countered with the examples of Korea and Yonsei university, the two other universities of the SKY (SNU / Korea / Yonsei) group which are considered koreas best universities. The korea and Yonsei university are private but are far behind SNU in most university rankings.
The plans for privatization are pushed forward in a time where in korea the tuition hikes are a big topic (student unions demand a nation wide 50% cut to tuition fees). Fears are that instead of decreased tuition fees the privatization will lead only to higher tuition fees due to lack of government control. Another concern is that non profitable departments will suffer after the privatization.

There is an additional problem making the situation at SNU more complicated: the privatization is not only planed, it is already decided. the government passed already a law and the only thing to do is to implement the privatization of SNU. For this, a privatization committee was formed which hopes to privatize SNU by next year. In other words the protest come to late.  However there are hopes that student unions might get a say in privatization process or at least get more binding promises that tuition fees will not be raised.

Another problem is that the university administration, namely the university president neglects to talk to the student unions. Much anger is also directed at the tradtional conservative newpapers of korea which mostly take side with privatization supporters.


Currently the administration building, including the presidents office, is occupied by students. As far as i heard there was a support event planed for friday the 17th but in its infinite wisdom SNU government tried to stop that by blocking the roads leading to the administration building with university owned busses. 

further readings you might find here:
Marmot's Hole
a good example why i think that the JonagAng Daily is a crap paper you can find here.