Group Demands College Misconduct Probe

The Liberal Education Movement Alliance, a new-right movement group, exposed various examples of misconduct in the private education sector regarding temporary executives and submitted an audit request to the Board of Audit and Inspection yesterday at the Cecile Restaurant in Jeong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul.

“Of the 33 schools that hired temporary directors, 10 universities are guilty of dozens of cases of misconduct,” an alliance spokesperson said.

Jo Jeon-hyuk, a permanent representative of the group, said, “A temporary director gets greater honors and privileges for remaining a temporary director than for putting the school system back on track, which is what leads to repeated misconduct.”

The five main suspicions raised by the alliance regarding colleges with temporary directors are as follows:

Illegal Sales and Purchases of Schools-

Director-general “K,” who was dispatched as a temporary director to “J” university in December 2000, signed a ‘Management Transfer Contract’ with representative “P” of the “S” consortium January last year, which stipulated the donation of 5 billion won by January 2006, and another 3 billion by December 2007.

In a separate case, a temporary director who was sent to “K” university in February 1997, contacted representative “L” of “P” corporation, who he saw as a potential buyer of the school, and worked toward a deal last July that ended in vain because it faced opposition from its old foundation.

The Education Alliance criticized the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, saying the ministry took no action despite being aware of the incident regarding “K” university through an audit.

Dishonoring School Mottos-

After a temporary director was dispatched to “K” Women’s University in July 2000, the phrase “for professional education” under the first chapter of the school’s general provisions, was modified to “for higher education and infant education” that same November.

In addition, after a temporary director was dispatched to “D” University in February 2000, the phrase “for Christian Spirit” under the first chapter of the graduate school’s general provisions, was deleted.

Embezzlement-

General Director “K” of “J” university received three million won in the form of ‘prestige maintenance costs,” every first day of the month from March 2002 to February 2003. During this period, “K” was also receiving public service pension benefits. The Education Alliance called such payoffs embezzlement because they were not issued with an attached receipt.

Faculty Misconduct-

In November 2000, “K” Women’s University erased a bylaw that stated, “Faculty pay is decided by the board of director,” and increased faculty salaries by 60 percent that same year.

In addition, the university, though fully informed of the misappropriation of government subsidies and research funds by “P”, chief of “S” research institute, merely handed down a two-month suspension to him.

Accounting Misconduct-

“K” university, despite a full-scale replacement of its board of directors after they incurred losses for the foundation worth 8 billion won and embezzled another 3.8 billion from the school foundation, did not file a claim for damages against them.

“We have evidence that proves a Ministry of Education official took bribes instead of investigating directors last December,” said president Jo.

ditto@donga.com