Shameful fiasco at SNU`s vocal music department

In 2010, suspicion was raised that a professor identified by her last name Kim, chair of Seoul National University’s vocal music department, had constantly beaten her students. She was a classical musician who was famous among the public for her appearance on SBS TV’s popular entertainment show, "Stocking." According to students’ testimonies, Kim afflicted violence to her students for insufficient applauses at concerts or failure to sell tickets that were allotted to them. A video clip spread on the Internet, showing her students signing congratulatory songs at her mother-in-law’s 80th birthday party. Seoul National University fired her in 2011 and the former professor countered with lawsuit. The Seoul Administrative Court ruled in favor of the school late last year.

Controversy has flared up anew over ill-advised practices of professors at the school`s vocal music department. A flurry of news reports have been filed on extreme conflict and dispute among faculty day after day. The quota for faulty members at the department is eight, but four remain vacant currently. The department must find professors to fill the vacancies, but its faculty are divided into two factions over appointment of Shin, who is the finalist in a recent recruitment process, engaging in a fight. One professor took with him the test sheet, which is classified document for recruiting faculty, while a graduate student, who submitted a letter of appeal to the school urging prompt appointment of new faculty members, received a threatening call from a professor. As the chair of the department retired, a professor of Korean classical music department temporarily assumed the post, the first of its kind situation ever.

Factional strife and controversy over the faculty appointment is a deep-rooted chronic disease at Korean universities. At art colleges including colleges of music and arts, which recruit students through practical tests and in which students are educated through apprenticeship, even fiercer fight is staged. The reason is that faculty believe that only when their faction appoints more members siding with them than the other faction, will they have a bigger say in the department. It is a fight of pork-barreling to protect their privileges, but few can keep them in check.

It is truly shameful to see disharmony displayed by professors of the vocal department at the prestigious university with the most intelligent people in Korea, who must teach esthetic emotion to students. The situation is so serious that insiders at the university even demand “dismantlement of the vocal music department.” The latest conflict is so intense that it is beyond the scope wherein its members can resolve on their own. Nonetheless, the university authorities remain indifferent to the situation, saying, “They should address the problem by themselves.” It is about time that the situation of a ridiculous drama or opera was put to an end. Don’t the faculty feel ashamed as they face students who had to overcome fierce competition to win admission to the nation’s most prestigious university?

Editorial writer Koh Mi-seok (mskoh119@donga.com)