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IF YOU have ever walked into the Yonsei-Samsung Library, you must have wondered at least once, “what is this wide space full of colorful chairs, whiteboards and a big TV screen?” That, dear Yonseians, is the Y-Valley: a place where you can explore creativity and freedom in order to turn ideas into reality. The Y-Valley has been a mystery for many students, with its novel introduction leaving many to wonder what its true purposes and uses are. The Yonsei Annals has therefore decided to investigate this mysterious space: this article will unravel details about the Y-Valley that we have obtained
Campus Issue
Kim Min-seo
2018.04.09 16:12
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IN THE first-floor lobby of the Underwood Hall, red and white leaflets of all sizes—handwritten and printed—are pasted across the walls. Shopping bags stuffed with personal possessions lie about here and there. Silver picnic mats carpet the floor, serving as a sitting area for a group of people in red vests. These are the cleaning laborers of Yonsei University and the union members from the western Seoul chapter of the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers’ Union (KPTU). They have commenced an indefinite sit-down strike in the Underwood Hall lobby since Jan. 16, protesting ag
Campus Issue
Kim Min-seo, Kwon Young-sau
2018.03.14 17:36
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IN THE democratic Korea, monarchy resides where the emperor has the absolute power over its citizens. In Korean universities, where scholars should be freely exploring their academic passions, many graduate students are muted, and are often subjected to abusive power. For decades, graduate students had to bear through their professors’ mistreatments as well as abuse of power in order to graduate and continue their career in academia. The term gap-jil is used to demonstrate the professor’s abuse of power upon students, and only recently did this issue begin to gain more attention. On July 13, a
Campus Issue
Kim Bo-dam, Kim Kyu-eun
2017.10.17 21:42
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IN SEPTEMBER, Yonsei University’s musical club Rothems, will feature Pi-mat-gol Yeon-ga, the first barrier-free musical on campus put together by currently active members of the club. By providing subtitles and audio explanations for the disabled, the club aims to make its musical more accessible for those who cannot see or hear. Such endeavor is indeed a groundbreaking achievement in Yonsei’s history. What does it mean to be “barrier-free”? Barrier-free arts refer to exhibitions, performances, and other cultural opportunities that are accessible to disabled people. For instance, a barrier-fre
Campus Issue
Lee Seung-yeon
2017.09.03 16:46
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THE BURDEN of university costs includes not only the high price of tuition but also admission fees. But what is an admission fee? What does it cover? When students are accepted into a university, they have to pay a onetime fee for being admitted into the university. However, universities in Korea do not disclose the fee structure for the admission fees. In fact, they don’t even manage the fees separately from tuition fees. Costing an extra ₩1,030,000, the admission fee is a financial burden for most students. Not knowing what the fee is used for or how it is managed frustrates students n
Campus Issue
Jeong Hong-bin
2016.12.12 11:24
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SEEING INTERNATIONAL students on campus is no longer an odd experience. With the Korean government aiming to resolve the ongoing depopulation of students and boost globalization of Korean universities, measures to attract more foreign students have been implemented since 2004. Throughout the country, universities began to competitively admit international students, such that the number of foreign students nationwide reached 91,332 in 2015, according to the National Institute of International Education (NIIE). Yet the poor management of these foreign students has triggered several serious probl
Campus Issue
Kim Hyo-jin
2016.05.11 00:17
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THE POLICY for appointing the 18th president of Yonsei University has widely provoked backlash on and off campus since the very start of this semester. Such reaction was sparked on July 21, when Yonsei’s Board of Directors approved the policy which seemed to lack necessary procedures for collecting opinion of members of the university, including the student body, faculty and staff. According to many who are against the appointment policy of Yonsei’s 18th president, the main problem lies in the elimination of the confirmation procedure. The confirmation procedure had allowed members of the Facu
Campus Issue
Cho Yun-myung
2015.12.05 23:57
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HUMAN RIGHTS – these are the rights we are entitled to from birth as human beings. Usually the mentioning of human rights brings up essential elements, such as nourishment and shelter. Yet what we tend to forget is that education is also an essential element. Once the right to education is violated, it violates human rights as well. That is why any violation against the right to education cannot be easily overlooked. On April 2, the students of Yonsei boldly rose up against the violation of the right to education and have demanded a specifica solution from the school. Not only at Yonsei
Campus Issue
Kim Ja-eun
2014.06.01 14:52
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IN GOETHE’S play Faust , a man sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for the promise of youth. Derived from this cultural motif, the phrase “Faustian bargain” refers to any form of agreement that involves a person losing his soul in the process. Derek Bok, the former president of Harvard University, used the term “Faustian bargain” to describe the growing activities of universities in the market place. He viewed the corporatization of universities as constituting a Faustian bargain because their chase after financial benefits eventually caused them to sell their identity of an intellectual c
Campus Issue
Jee You-seon
2013.11.18 01:19
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LAST MAY, The Yonsei Annals published an article entitled “Sexual Harrassment and Assault in Yonsei”. The article dealt broadly with the Yonsei Gender Equity Center (YGEC), which lacked funding and had only one counselor, which may become a major obstacle for the school to manage effectively sexual harassment and assaults in Yonsei. On the other hand, the incident at Nonji-dang last May revealed a more fundamental problem with YGEC and its concept of “gender equity”. The Yonsei Annals delved deeper into this issue to help Yonseians’ understand its complex implications.May, at Nonji-dang A post
Campus Issue
Oh Jung-hee, Kwon Soon-min
2013.09.01 22:37
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BENJAMIN DISRAELI, a great nineteenth-century British prime minister, said that “a university should be a place of light, of liberty, and of learning.” In Disraeli’s view, college is supposed to be a place where students go to learn and to experience the profound intellectual challenges of academia. But that sentiment does not seem to hold anymore in contemporary Korean society. Many colleges in Korea seem to disregard the educational responsibility of a university and instead focus on raising the employment rates of their graduates. One might wonder, then, what exactly caused such a change in
Campus Issue
Chung Dha-ra
2013.07.25 18:28
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COLLEGE LIFE is a challenge for many students. Studying hard to receive good grades in class is a given. But many more suffer from the burden of expensive tuition fees. University students take variou
Campus Issue
Chung Dha-ra
2013.05.20 21:19
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Campus Issue
Jung Young-hwa
2012.09.30 23:57
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IN A GAME of Tetris, each of the blocks is differently shaped, fitting into place only when carefully planned and calculated by the player. If not landed properly, the screen flashes the words "Game Over."
Campus Issue
Jung Young-hwa
2012.04.18 06:15
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"WE HAVE settled down as a leading conservative youth organizations, as the biggest right-wing university student organization in nation. We will fix the college community of Korea, advising a rightful path for the country." The President of the University Students' Forum of Korea, Yoon Ju-jin, finished his speech; students holding flags started to march through the conference hall. The flags read, "Conserve and Complete Korea."
Campus Issue
Kim Jee-hyun
2011.09.01 21:50
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“EXTREME FEMINISM, undemocratic structure, and lack of interaction with the female students.” In 2007, the Student Association (SA) President Choi Jong-woo cited these reasons as he announced that they would hold a vote whether to close down the Women Student Association (WSA) and replace it with an institution subordinated to SA. The plan was rejected in the end; this, however, reflects what WSAs in Korea universities are going through. Many criticize the WSA, question its identity, and ask what good it does for the school. But do they really know what the WSA does and aims to do is? What the WSA needs now is grounded, constructive criticism.
Campus Issue
Kim Ju-hyun
2011.04.28 18:48
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THE NUMBER of saetomin living in South Korea has been increasing incessantly, and is now about to reach 20,000. Saetomin, literally meaning "new settler," indicates a North Korean defector l
Campus Issue
Lee Jai-won
2010.10.28 22:13
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Finally, the tug-of-war over medical education between the MEST* and the Korean Association of Medical Colleges (KAMC) is over. Universities have earned independent rights to decide on their medical e
Campus Issue
Lee Jai-won
2010.08.26 21:06
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THE YEAR 2010 is an important year for every Yonseian. Last December, a student of our school and the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD)* won a lawsuit against Yonsei University, with the decision to disclose the details of its reserve fund use. Along with this, the Income Contingent Loan (ICL)* and the law limiting increases in the rate of tuition became effective this year. Some might ask, “Do these incidents have any connection with each other?” The answer to this question is, “yes, they do.” Thanks to the students’ strong endeavors, the problems regarding high tuition fees and transparency of school finances is moving towards a solution. At a press conference held on March 17, Jeong Da-hye (Pres., Student Association) said, “Our struggle for reasonable tuition has just started.” At the center of this controversy are concerns about the reserve fund.
Campus Issue
Kim Min-ju
2010.05.04 18:39
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LEE TOOK his College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), also called the sooneung last November. After receiving his score report, he started applying to universities that corresponded to his exam score. Imagining a bright university life the following year, he skimmed through the list of schools and found a department with a unique name that he had never heard of. After searching the university's website, he discovered that it is a "specialized department" that was recently established. Students in this major receive benefits such as scholarships or chances to study abroad. In addition, it guarantees students' employment after graduation through practical education. Considering these advantages, Lee pondered whether he would apply for this "special" department which belongs to a mid-class university or the "ordinary" departments of privileged universities. University applicants these days have similar distress just like that of Lee. Such a phenomenon signifies Korean universities' efforts to attract outstanding students and raise the overall quality of university education by virtue of specialized departments.
Campus Issue
Kim Min-ju
2010.02.25 19:19