On September 1, KAIST announced the “KAIST Declaration for Diversity and Inclusion”. The declaration was hosted by the KAIST Social Inclusion Committee and Student & Minority Human Rights Committee and held in the Computer Science Department Building (E3-1). President Kwang Hyung Lee, Vice President for Planning and Budget Bowon Kim, the presidents of the two committees, and students participated in reading out the declaration, in both Korean and English.

The motivation that led the KAIST Social Inclusion Committee to create a declaration on diversity and inclusion came from the escalation of hateful and discriminatory comments within the KAIST community. The members of the committee wrote the declaration document with the help of Professor Sung Soo Hong, an associate professor at Sookmyung Women’s University, along with fellow researchers.

Professor Sukyoung Ryu, a member of the KAIST Social Inclusion Committee, stated, “This is not a problem that can be solved with just one event reading the declaration. Instead of trying to find and punish those responsible for hate speech, we need to create a culture in which members empathize with each other so that no one suffers for any reason.”

The declaration affirmed that KAIST will do its utmost to create a university culture that embraces every person regardless of their gender, religion, disability, age, social status, origin, ethnicity, physical condition, political stance. In the short term, the KAIST Social Inclusion Committee plans to hold events such as the “Declaration Reading Video Challenge”. For the long term, it will continue to share declarations periodically and strive to create a culture that respects diversity and inclusion. Meanwhile, the declaration video will be released this week.  

(Updated) Link to declaration video: https://youtu.be/NqIlQQ4zuY4