Korea University students who recently held professors against their will during a sixteen-hour protest are being "permanently" expelled. Whatever the circumstances, it is frustrating and deplorable that students confined their professors and that professors are permanently banishing their pupils from their school. The university says it handed down the heavy penalties because the students involved have demonstrated no sign of remorse. It was hoped that they would show at least a little regret, but even when they were given a chance to explain themselves, they are said to have continued to claim they were justified. You even see a sense of sadness in the school's statement, which says its "patience and tolerance were completely disregarded."
The incident began when students at the university's college of health began demanding the right to vote in student association elections. They forcibly detained professors in an effort to attain their demands, something that cannot be justified for any reason. They crossed a line they should not have crossed, and their actions were illegal, instead of being a matter of freedom of expression. Fellow students even organized a rally to criticize their actions and yet they still did not express any regret, so the university is right to discipline them, for educational reasons as well.
However, you wonder whether their behavior warranted the virtually unheard-of disciplinary action known as "permanent expulsion," which involves completely deleting their school records. Other forms of expulsion leave open the possibility for re-admittance at a later date. It was impulsive and it goes against educational principles to respond with the harshest punishment possible just because students weren't admitting any wrongdoing. It will not have an educational effect, and the students involved will find it hard to accept. Disciplinary action needs to be reasonable and there needs to be commensurate responsibility. It is unbalanced to issue punishment without doing anything about students' demands. When students obstructed the ceremony in which Korea University gave Samsung chairman Lee Kun Hee, it didn't hand out any penalties, though of course the president of the student association apologized. Korea University should reconsider its decision to expel these students permanently.
The Hankyoreh, 21 April 2006.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
[Editorial] 'Permanent Expulsion' is Too Much |
