Amidst the chaos of the various problems regarding the upcoming Department of Transdisciplinary Sciences and Engineering (TSE) (refer to page 4), President Sung-Chul Shin and other school officials held the “President’s Meeting with Undergraduate Students” to discuss the most pertinent issues suggested by KAIST students and the Undergraduate Student Council (USC) Batchim. The event, hosted by the USC, was held at the newly-opened space of the Sky Lounge on the 5th floor of the Cultural Building (E9) on May 23.

The event began with an opening remark from President Shin, who precluded the occasion by stating, “As a global institution, KAIST should hold a dream of paving its way through the new era.” USC President Jaeseok Lee followed up with a preamble of his own, expressing thanks to the participants of the conference. After a brief photo session and dinner, the actual conference commenced. In preparation of the event, the USC had collected accounts and questions from students via its Facebook page. The conference consisted of five sections: safety, academic policy, external affairs, advice from President Shin, and a Q&A session.

The safety section addressed major fears and grievances of the students regarding seismic resistant designs, the frail structures and upkeep of the buildings, chaotic traffic situations near the main gate, and the uncontrolled access of the school by outsiders and its subsequent disruptions. A student voiced the lack of awareness and measures for earthquakes within the school and reported increased anxiety, citing uneven floors and leaky roofs. Dean of Academic and Student Affairs Kihan Kim reassured students that the newer buildings have been earthquake-proofed and that the team is currently remodeling and fixing such damages. He also promised to look into expanding earthquake drills to dormitories and classrooms to educate all students on the premise after a participant criticized the selectiveness of the drills.

Additionally, the perpetual invasion of outsiders during festival season still caused headaches for many undergraduates. The outsiders perturb the academic environment annually: they litter, enter opposite-sex dorms, park on roads, and shout in the buildings. President Shin emphasized instilling “public consciousness” and, when pressed for more concrete solutions, suggested putting posters around the school ground. USC Vice President Jinung An challenged such a suggestion as posters have been displayed around campus every year by the USC without any sign of improvement. President Shin decided to pass on the issue directly to Dean Kim for future complaints. Following a similar note, Dean Kim stated that in order to fix the overcrowding of traffic during rush hour, they are looking into long-term solutions while taking care to not risk the safety of KAISTians.

After being briefly addressed during the additional questions section, the controversial incident of hydrofluoric spillage stole the spotlight. In March, a cleaning personnel mistakenly transferred potentially hazardous chemicals from a bottle labeled “hydrofluoric acid” at the School of Electrical Engineering Building (E3-2), which led to a hospital check-up for the cleaning personnel and quarantine of the site (refer to Volume 161, “Mishandling of Hydrofluoric Acid Causes Panic”). Numerous undergraduates decried the delayed notification of the incident to the entire population and a dearth of follow-up measures. Executive Vice President O Ok Park denounced the usage of the word “leakage” as no hydrofluoric acid was detected. He also stated that an inspection and subsequent cleanup occurred immediately and resulted in zero casualties. However, many students emphasized the fundamental complaint of the student populace: the lack of communication of the possibility to the rest of the school had disappointed and triggered panic within the community. Students expressed unending concerns regarding the unprofessional and negligent response process by the Office of the School of Electrical Engineering as well as the school. Dean of Academic Affairs Yong-hoon Cho stated that the Investigation Committee will soon publish its findings and future plans for a better strategy in handling and notifying students of emergency situations.

The discussion moved onto academic policies; students from different backgrounds raised points on the six-year graduation limit, restricted leave-of-absence periods, increase of the monthly scholarship, and more, but specific curriculum policies took center stage. Both online submissions and students onsite criticized the disparity resulting from the spring-oriented curriculum. Fall-entrant students often faced disadvantages in planning their academic career due to most majors scheduling their courses — especially prerequisite major courses — under the assumption that students enter in the spring. Dean Cho stated that short-term actions would be difficult but that he would contact departments regarding limiting the number of prerequisite requirements and increasing possible recognition of credit examinations.

Other scheduling conflicts resulted in impossible combinations of certain minors and double majors, a problem a student argued “went against the exact philosophy of integrated research that President Shin promoted”. Due to the six-year graduation limit, some students could not fulfill double major requirements as they could not fit all the compulsory courses into their schedules while graduating in time. Increasing the amount of available recognition of credit from other departments and universities was proposed as an option by the school.

The bigger problem at hand, however, was the severely small pool of humanities and social sciences (HSS) courses at KAIST. Though 21 credits of HSS are mandatory for graduation, students enter a fierce competition for classes due to limited seats. The problem is further exacerbated for sport classes, even resulting in a black market for such classes. 

Dean Cho implied that only a select few of the most popular classes showed competition, to which Vice President An cited continued submission of HSS demand statistics to the school administration every year. The reports calculated that the current number of available humanities classes, when compared to the number of students and graduation requirements, simply does not meet the demand. President Shin identified Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) and recognition of credit from other institutions such as Chungnam National University and Ewha Womans University.

However, a controversy arose when discussing such alternatives. Referring to the exchange program with Ewha Womans University’s HSS programs, President Shin stated, “Male students will be pleased to learn that exchanges with Ewha Womans University may be available as an option during the breaks.” On the spot, the President of the KAIST Student and Minority Human Rights Committee Jehun Park interjected with a request for President Shin to rescind and apologize for the remarks he made that specifically targeted gender on the behalf of male and female students from both universities. The dispute even appeared on KAIST-related social media platforms afterwards, causing students to react negatively to the statements.

The next topic of contention was external affairs, addressing problems such as the call for revocation of former President Park Geun-hye’s honorary PhD degree from KAIST after her involvement in the Choi Soon-sil Scandal in 2016. Despite repeatedly requesting the annulment of the degree, the USC received answers that such an action was not possible. President Shin reflected similar sentiments as before, asserting that there was no policy or rationale for the annulment as the problems transpired after the degree had been given.

The bigger issue of the evening was that of sexual harassment within the campus. With heightened distress at cases of sexual harassment, such as hidden cameras in public bathrooms, the students showed concerns. In regards to the subject, President Shin declared that both faculty-to-student and student-to-student sexual harassment and violence cases will be dealt with “zero-tolerance” policies.

The final session comprised of students seeking advice from President Shin. A student inquired “how a graduate student can achieve happiness”. The undergraduate revealed feelings of fear and apprehension after hearing rumors of “sleepless work schedules and minimal free time” that graduate students suffer through. They referred to graduate schools abroad with restricted working hours and non-hierarchical structures, hoping for implementations of such systems at KAIST. President Shin, whose comments later incited controversy among students on platforms such as the Facebook page KaDaejeon, commented that “To enter graduate school … one must consider the value and joy derived from the decision for the individual.” He continued, “Students who pity those who do overnight work should not go to graduate school.” He further added that he was shocked by students who used expressions such as “work hours” and asked to remove weekend meetings. President Shin stated that “If more than half of the school had similar thoughts, then KAIST should not exist.” In response, students refuted that even enjoyable activities can be taxing and late-night work should not be mandatory.

The meeting, which was originally scheduled to last only two and a half hours, extended long into the night, lasting for more than five hours. During the final moments of the conference, the USC posed a question to the president: “How will you communicate with the students from here on out?” President Shin claimed that he has and is putting effort into communicating more with the students. The USC further inquired on what the cause of continued conflict and disagreement between the president and the undergraduate community was, to which President Shin answered, “I believe it’s due to the generational differences.” Some students expressed final wishes that the president would be unafraid in admitting mistakes and making apologies. The meeting highlighted diversity and the overabundance of issues that plagued the undergraduate society and the need for persistent and open communication between the administration and the student body as they cooperate to resolve each problem moving forward.