By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
Chung-Ang University in Seoul plans to punish a group of students who ran into the university president’s office last month to protest the dismissal of a professor critical of the Lee Myung-bak administration.
On Monday, the school said it had recently convened a committee to discipline the students.
Chung-Ang recently decided not to renew the contract of Jin Jung-gwon, a progressive culture critic, for a teaching post, saying that Jin is under-qualified.
However, some critics claim that the school kicked out the professor out of political motivations.
“Some 10 students intruded into the president’s vacant office and posted red stickers here and there,” said a school official. “This kind of behavior cannot be tolerated.”
The student group immediately reacted and held a press meeting to protest the move, claiming they got permission in advance to visit the school president, so they didn’t intrude into the office.
“It is absurd to punish students who made a proper request,” the student group said in a statement. “Our university should stop using anti-democratic oppression.”
The 46-year-old professor in the German Language and Literature department has lectured at the university for seven years, renewing his contract every two years.