Ewha students press president to step down

School head unlikely to accept demand

By Kim Bo-eun

Students at Ewha Womans University are demanding that school President Choi Kyung-hee step down and take responsibility for the conflict surrounding an aborted night school plan.

While students are planning a massive rally against Choi if she refuses to step down, school officials say it is unlikely she will resign.

Hundreds of students began a sit-in at Ewha’s main office building in Seoul on July 28, demanding the university scrap its plans to establish a night school, claiming the university merely hopes to generate revenue by luring people who need degrees from the top women’s university here.

Although the university decided to drop its plans on Aug. 3, students have continued the sit-in, saying the protest will continue until the president steps down.

The students pledged to host a large-scale protest on Wednesday evening if their demands are not met.

But a university official implied Choi’s resignation would not happen.

“The student demands cannot be accepted,” said Jin Young-ju, the school’s vice director of PR. “We recognize that the president holds responsibility (over the issue) but not to the extent of having to step down.”

But Jin said discussions on the final decision about Choi’s position are ongoing.

The university put pressure on the students to end their sit-in.

“The students continue to occupy the main building, and this is disrupting administrative procedures for the fall semester,” Jin said.

The conflict between university authorities and students began in July after Ewha had been selected by the Ministry of Education as one of 10 schools to receive government funding to set up a night school as a means of dealing with the decreasing number of freshmen as a result of low birth rates.

However, hundreds of students began a sit-in, protesting the university’s decision, denouncing the president for arbitrarily pushing ahead with the plan. With the sit-in, students blocked professors and a school worker from leaving a school building. Five of them were trapped in the building for two days until around 1,600 police were dispatched on July 30 to let them out.

After a week of protests by not only students but also professors and graduates, Ewha decided to nullify the disputed plan.

Meanwhile, students also denounced the university’s mobilization of the police force.

They claimed their sit-in was peaceful, but that the university had mobilized the police to suppress them.

“According to police, the confinement of school faculty is illegal,” Jin said. “We recognize it is the official duty of the police to investigate illegal acts. But the university sent a petition to local authorities not to punish the students, and is considering other ways to minimize the potential punishment for them.”