hankyoreh

By Seo Young-ji, staff reporter

“I reject a university where injustice is rampant.”

It was the afternoon of May 7, and a university student was shouting at the main gate of Chung-Ang University in Seoul’s Heukseok neighborhood. The university has undergone rapid restructuring since it was acquired by the Doosan Group in 2008. Now it has begun making “incursions” into areas that have hitherto been up to the students themselves to decide. Students who have criticized the moves have reportedly been stigmatized and repressed. For Kim Chang-in, a 24-year-old third-year philosophy student, dropping out was a last-ditch show of resistance.

Speaking at a press conference that day to announce his decision, Kim said, “What I learned at this university is that you can’t even dream of justice. [Chairman of the university foundation’s board] Park Yong-sung said that university was ‘an industry, not an education,’ and in five years that’s become the reality. Professors criticizing the government have been fired; school magazines criticizing the university president have been pulled from circulation. The general education curriculum has been shrunk to cut costs, while departments have been abolished.”

Kim also criticized the university for a lawsuit claiming one million won (US$980) apiece for posters supporting the rights of campus cleaning workers.

“Posters have been banned at the university, that ivory tower of truth,” he said. “They’ve been disallowed as ‘political,’ and they’ve been taken down for entrance exam events.”

Kim, who describes himself as “part of the first Doosan generation,” said he felt he could not stand by and do nothing as his school turned into a glorified “vocational academy.” In 2010, he was suspended indefinitely when he responded to the downsizing of departments to “boost university competitiveness” by pasting a banner on nearby Hangang Bridge reading, “The university is not a corporation. I oppose corporate-style restructuring.” The argument at the time was that he had “hurt the school’s reputation.” He filed suit the following year, but still ended up with an eighteen-month suspension.

In November of last year, Kim was running unopposed as student council president for the Institute of Humanities when the school suddenly formed an “election guidance committee” to bar him from running.

“People keep asking me what I’m going to do after I quit school,” Kim said. His answer was short and to the point.

“I see this not as an issue for Chung-Ang University alone, but for all of South Korea’s universities,” he said. “I’d like the university to think about how it wants to present itself. I’m not leaving because I don’t like school.”

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