Ewha University Protesters Succeed In Keeping School an Elitist Institution
It looks like the student protesters won their argument to keep Ewha University as an elitist institution plus they will face no punishment for detaining professors for 46 hours. Despite this they are still not happy:
Ewha Womans University President Choi Kyung-hee has filed a petition calling on authorities not to punish students who blocked four professors and a school worker from leaving a school building for 46 hours during a sit-in protest against the school’s plan to set up a night college for workers.
Choi visited Seodaemun Police Station in central Seoul Friday morning to submit the petition, which read that the professors and the worker do not want the students to face action.
Hundreds of Ewha students began the sit-in on July 28 and prevented the five people from leaving. School officials asked police to intervene and some 1,600 officers were mobilized to remove the protesters on July 30.
Police are identifying the students by reviewing video footage. A police officer said, “The petition will not affect the ongoing investigation. It may affect the level of punishment if they are indicted, but it’s up to the court.”
Following the protest, Choi said the school would scrap the night college plan. But students are still staging the sit-in, demanding Choi’s resignation. [Korea Times]
My wife looked up this story on some Korean media sites and said that the story played out not so much that they want to keep it elitist but that they fear this is a cover for a “diploma factory” program within the school where older people with the means show up with a pile of cash, go through a few interviews, present a letter of recommendation, and then after completing around 2 years get the same thing a s someone who has to do the full tour. Truth? Beats me but considering how things work in Korea I wouldn’t dismiss it.
There’s probably some fear of that; but we all know how dispassionate and rational college students are… /s
They’re just afraid of the status quo being upset.
I don’t think Ewha would put their reputation at stake by becoming a diploma mill. It would be like an Ivy League college in the US becoming a diploma mill. It seems they were trying to increase enrollment by allowing in people that maybe had to work a few years to save money before being able to enter college. Clearly the increased enrollment wasn’t worth the headache they are having now with these protesters.
Being a “retread” myself, I tend to see things differently. Students who protest should be summarily dismissed. Forced to wait a year before reapplying.
Hm. I don’t know anything about the South Korean higher education system, but I can tell you even some pretty competitive schools (for example UF, freshman average GPA is 4.25…maybe more now) are going to lots of online classes. Not just “night” classes. Seems to me this is the future. I’m not sure what the point of even living near campus is, if 100 percent of one’s classes are online up until mid-Junior year.
Seems to me that very soon age and time schedule won’t matter one wit.
I should add… I’m not claiming online classes are a good development.
I actually hated online learning (been about ten years now but even when I got my RN they were trying to push the online thing for a lot of classes…to include “collaborative” work).
But it is what it is and it seems to be where the future is headed.