Tensions between students and Seoul National University remained high yesterday as the president refused to accept the students’ ultimatum to meet with them by 6 p.m. to discuss the school’s plan to become an independent entity. The sit-in of more than 100 students continued.

Students have occupied SNU’s main administrative building since Monday night. The sit-in began after 1,700 students were polled by the student council and voted to oppose the university’s plan to become independent.

“If the university becomes an incorporated entity, there are concerns tuition fees will go up and it will also make students neglect noncommercial academic fields, such as the humanities, because the university would become a business-oriented organization,” the student council said.

A labor union representing the university’s staff also opposes the school’s incorporation plan because members believe the plan will harm their job security. Once the school becomes an independent entity, school staff members would lose their civil servant status and could potentially be paid less.

The student council publicized the cell phone number of SNU President Oh Yeon-cheon to encourage students to send text messages pressuring the president to sit down for talks.

But the meeting did not happen. Oh maintains that he could not discuss the matter with students because they had blocked access to the administrative building, which contained relevant information.

It’s doubtful that the students’ demand for reversing the school’s incorporation will be accepted by the president. The National Assembly in December passed a bill to transform the nation’s top state-run university into an independent entity, in a move to raise the school’s efficiency and global competitiveness.

Oh and his predecessor, Lee Jang-moo, pushed for incorporation under the belief that there would be more to gain than lose if SNU were free from government control. SNU will be run by a board of directors that elects its president. In the past, SNU professors elected the president.

While all state and public property, including the university’s buildings and land, will be handed over for free to the university, SNU can retain government funding.


By Kim Mi-ju, Kang Shin-who [mijukim@joongang.co.kr]