Doosan Heavy chairman resigns
By Kim Se-jeong
Park Yong-sung
Park Yong-sung, chairman of the Chung-Ang University foundation, resigned Tuesday after an email he sent to professors last month, containing abusive language, was made public.
Park also quit as chairman of Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction and honorary chairman of the Korean Olympic Committee.
“I bear full responsibility for what happened to me and the university,” Park said in a statement. “I thought I was steering the university in the right direction, but this unnerved many faculty members.”
The school said a board meeting will be convened soon to choose his successor.
Doosan Heavy took over the university in 2008 and Park has been serving as the chairman of the foundation ever since, spearheading the school restructuring.
He has been in a feud with a group of professors over his competition-oriented education programs and merit-based salary system.
His resignation came after the email to some 20 professors who were against his reform plans was published by the Kyunghyang Shinmun.
Park wrote he would “axe those begging to be axed.” He also wrote, “I will do everything the way I want to because I am in charge of the university. It’s not polite to not axe the professors when they have stretched their necks so long as to be axed.”
Park even mentioned the name of one professor in the German Language Department who has opposed his reform plans, verbally harassing her.
Reports said 92 percent of Chung-Ang’s faculty members do not support the restructuring plan.
Park’s resignation is a new blow to the university foundation which is currently being investigated for accounting fraud. Former President Park Bum-hoon is expected to be questioned this week for his possible role in this.
The former president has been under investigation for bribery and corruption allegations. He is accused of peddling influence with the Ministry of Education to approve the integration of the university’s two campuses in Seoul and Anseong, Gyeonggi Province in 2012.
He is accused of abusing his position as presidential secretary between 2011 and 2013 to get the deal approved even if the school did not meet the requirements for integration.
The ministry initially demanded Chung-Ang to purchase more land on its Seoul campus so that it could accommodate the students from Anseong. The school is suspected of saving tens of billions of won by not doing so.
Additionally, Park allegedly pushed the ministry to demote officials who resisted his influence.
The prosecution is also looking into an allegation that he influenced the school to give his first daughter a permanent teaching position in the music department.