By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Professors and students at Korea National University of Arts (K-Arts) are stepping up their protest against the government's audit and the ensuing disciplinary action against their former President Hwang Chi-woo.
Hwang, 56, stepped down on May 19 in protest against the audit by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism conducted from March 18 to May 1.
The ministry said that the audit revealed a misappropriation of school funds and mismanagement of school affairs and curriculum. The government issued disciplinary measures on some professors, including Hwang, and demanded the institution change recent school policies that expanded theoretical education and adopted the U-AT project that fuses arts and science technology.
The government claimed that Hwang misappropriated 8 million won of government subsidies by using funds for other purposes and took overseas trips without due process. Also, the ministry said the school's curriculum doesn't fit the founding purpose of the school, which is to offer practical arts training.
However, Hwang argued that 12 of the government's disciplinary punishments severely violate the school's autonomy and professors' authority.
The ministry demanded the school scrap the U-AT project and reform the curriculum to reduce the theoretical courses.
``Instead of becoming a lame-duck president, I have decided to resign in order to reduce government pressure on the school,'' he said in the press conference last week.
He said that the government audit is ``targeted,'' and meant to force him to resign. Park Tae-soon, head of the Arts Bureau of the ministry, asked him in early March whether he wanted to keep the position of president, and he said he would stay on until February next year. He considered it a way of intimating his resignation. It was after that meeting that the audit began, he said.
Professors and students are joining in the president's protest.
The professors' association issued a statement on May 25, saying that ``the government's demand to abolish or reduce certain curriculum or projects is feared to interfere in the school's autonomy.''
Concerning the misappropriation of subsidies, he admitted his mistakes in dealing with receipts but didn't think it was a reason critical enough for him to step down. ``It is an unprecedented audit in the school's 17-year history which had lasted a few months,'' Hwang said.
About 300 school personnel, students and their parents also held a forum on May 26 to discuss ways to overcome the crisis of the school's autonomy following the audit.
``It's very sad that our theory classes are denounced in that way. If the theories don't support, we cannot pursue the way of the artists, who are supposed to ask questions and communicate with the public,'' said Lee Kkot-byeol, a haegeum (two-stringed fiddle) player and a graduate of the school.
Culture minister Yu In-chon has pressed the government-funded institution leaders, who were appointed under the previous left-leaning Roh Moo-hyun administration, to quit their posts since his inauguration.
Recently Kim Jeong-heon, president of Arts Council Korea and Kim Yoon-su, president of National Museum of Contemporary Art, have been relieved of their posts.
Hwang had been identified as the next and last leader to be dismissed by the government.
However, the government said the audit was standard procedure and dismissed Hwang's argument that the ministry official asked him whether he would stay in his position.
The school was established in 1993 as the only national university of arts, and has been cultivating international artists in various fields since.