The KAIST Professors’ Association held a press conference on September 29 and released a statement demanding the resignation of President Nam Pyo Suh, on grounds that the resolutions from the Emergency Innovation Committee (EIC) were not being carried out properly.

Prior to the press conference, the Professors’ Association held a survey from September 26 to 28 on how the professors felt about the current status of the EIC’s resolutions and whether the Association should demand the resignation of President Suh. Of the 369 professors that participated in the survey, more than half felt that the resolutions were not being carried out properly and that President Suh should take responsibility and step down as the President of KAIST. After analyzing the survey results, the Professors’ Association held an emergency meeting on the 29th and voted on whether to demand the resignation of President Suh, and it passed 288 professors participating in the vote and the majority agreeing on the agenda.

During the emergency conference, Professor Chong-Min Kyung, head of the Professors’ Association, said that “We demand the immediate resignation of President Suh on grounds of breaking trust, making decisions dogmatically and many problems arising from school operations.”

School officials present at the emergency conference said that President Suh will carefully look over the survey results and make amendments. Professor Yonghoon Lee, Vice President of Operations, said that “President Suh has no intention of stepping down. We shouldn’t rush into things but rather take it slow. The President is carrying out the resolutions from the EIC but it may not be as fast as the Professors want it to be.” Also one school official said that considering the fact that there are 585 professors (including the professors that have not joined the Professors’ Association), the majority wasn’t made and the opinions of staff and students were not reflected as well. The official went on to quote that during the Emergency Student Assembly, the vote on whether President Suh should resign was also rejected.

In respect to the statement released by the Professors’ Association, the Undergraduate Student Union released a statement, saying that although there have been positive changes like abolishing the punitive tuition fee, other resolutions still remain unchanged and President Suh as well as the school officials should communicate more with the members of KAIST.

The resolutions from the Professors’ Association have no binding power, but as it has been made clear that there are many voices demanding the resignation of President Suh, the matter will light up KAIST once again.
 

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