[SNU Bird Dispatch] A Time for Getting to Know Each Other Better

Hooray! You’ve opened this e-mail! That means the distance between us has gotten a little narrower. I, the SNU Bird, am glad that this didn’t go straight into your trash folder. Last week, when President Oh confided to me that “SNU students don’t even read 5% of the group emails sent from the university” and “how to communicate with the members of the university community is my biggest concern,” I nodded vigorously. But you’re clearly a person who bends an ear to the voices of the university, so I believe you’ll enjoy the story of “A Talk with the President about SNU”.

Held on November 6th, the event was planned by the Diversity Council as part of its “Diversity Dialogue Series” as an opportunity for the president and students to talk freely with one another. The president was so enthusiastic about meeting with students that he was the one who suggested including a student panel, while students had so much to say to the president that they filled up the 120-seat Yangduseok Hall.

 “This event is a place to trade our raw ideas back and forth so that we can develop them and build much greater shared ideas,” Diversity Council chair Ki-Sun Hong said to kick off the event, and as she said, this discussion meeting wasn’t a place to look for immediate answers and decisions. Instead, the president shared his thoughts as both the head of the university and as an individual, and at times frankly described his efforts, failures and plans.

“How can we walk together?”

The members of the university community are diverse and have a wide range of opinions, and it would be hard to quickly come up with an answer to the question of how to bring them all together. But isn’t it clear, at least, that we should begin by meeting up and talking with each other? Through discussion, won’t we be able to recognize our differences and find areas where we can work together? As the event went on, enthusiasm grew and tension melted away. President Oh said, “I agree” often. Maybe we’re mostly looking in the same general direction after all – though each of us may be going that way at a different speed. 

And what we need most to match each other’s speed, the president says, is “creating a channel for students to let us know about their difficulties”. He said, “I think there needs to be a way for students to express what they actually feel at the university without adding or omitting anything.”

Communication doesn’t have to start with something fancy. One late-blooming student who had been in the workforce before coming to SNU explained that he was the head of his suite at Gwanak Residence Halls, and said, “I’m living with five younger students. I suggested that we greet each other when we pass in the suite, and they always greet me politely, but they don’t greet each other. Doesn’t communication start from small things like greeting each other? I’d like there to be something like a ‘Let’s greet each other’ campaign.” This suggestion kind of came out of nowhere, but it was clearly one that everybody could get behind, as the audience broke out in cheers and applause.

“Diversity” Is the Difference of Ideas in Our Community

Student attendees described the difficulties of interdisciplinary study in graduate school, called for improving the way that staff handle administrative tasks, shared their feelings about less information being made available to international students, recommended strengthening educational efforts to create well-rounded people, stated their opinions about the scholarship system… the meeting sailed past its expected end time as the discussion continued. And it was clear that the asking and answering at least allowed us to relieve some of the unnecessary conflict inside us. Some people might complain that we just discussed things on an abstract level and that nothing really changed; others might feel satisfied because we tried to get on the same wavelength and candidly shared our opinions with each other. After all, aren’t such differences in perspective the very meaning of “diversity”? And the meeting taught us that sharing those diverse thoughts is very important for the development of the university.

SNU Bird 

Diversity Dialogue Series 3: A Talk with the President about SNU [Link]