On July 12, 2023, Korea University's (KU) 52nd College of Liberal Arts Student Council Muneui announced that they were unilaterally notified of the absence of student self-governing spaces in the blueprint of the Humanities Building. Student self-governing spaces for the College of Liberal Arts are currently located in the International Studies Hall, as the Communications Building was demolished in 2018. The school originally promised that student self-governing spaces would be reintroduced in the new Humanities Building, which will be built in the place where the Communications Building once stood. This is not the first time the school went back on its promise to include student self-governing spaces in future new buildings, from the Woo Dang Hall to the SK Future Hall. Now, students, represented by Muneui, are opposing the school’s dogmatic decisions.

The Humanities Building was planned to solve the chronic issue of space scarcity for the College of Liberal Arts students. According to the Office of Development and External Affairs, the current College of Liberal Arts Building, better known as Seogwan, can only cover 46 percent of the space needed for professors’ research rooms, classrooms, and student self-governing spaces. In an interview with the dean held in June 2023, the school announced that the new building will begin construction at the end of this year.

However, the new construction plan was also followed by a reduction in building size — the scale of one basement level and three floors above ground. As such, the university announced that the building would only be used by College of Liberal Arts students, making it the Humanities Building, not the Humanities and Society Building, under the condition that the College of Political Science and Economics will use the SK Future Hall. In addition, they informed the College of Liberal Arts Student Union that the new building would not be able to accommodate student self-governing spaces due to said reduction.

Securing Self-Governing Spaces

When the student self-governing spaces were initially removed, the school notified students that their spaces would be moved to the new Woo Dang Hall. However, after it was rebuilt, the school refused to allow the relocation of student self-governing spaces. To remedy this problem, the President of KU then, Professor Yeom Jae-Ho, promised to secure self-governing spaces in the newly built SK Future Hall. The SK Future Hall was originally named the SK Humanities Future Hall, and like the Humanities Building, it was originally designed to solve the chronic space problems of the College of Liberal Arts. Unfortunately, after construction began, the school stated that public spaces were a higher priority than those belonging to certain colleges, prolonging the temporary stay of students in the International Studies Hall.

The 52nd College of Liberal Arts Student Union Muneui is striving to allocate the originally promised student self-governing place to the Humanities Building. Muneui’s President Song Yujin (’21, Korean History) said that following the dean’s office’s announcement regarding the absence of student self-governing spaces in June, they decided that it would be better to communicate with the school directly. She also mentioned that they tried to participate in the meeting of the Academic Affairs Committee on June 27, but the school canceled it on that day and postponed it to a month later.

To request proper communication with the school, Muneui posted a wall poster insisting that the school should let students participate in the process of planning the new Humanities Building. Song mentioned that “we think the wall poster provided a window to communicate with the school since the Academic Affairs Committee meeting was scheduled after it was posted.” She also said that their main goal is to assign self-governing space to the Humanities Building no matter what; hence, they are considering taking on stronger measures if their request is not considered, measures such as schoolwide petitions or even protests.

Current Problems Faced

Despite Muneui striving to place student self-governing space in the upcoming Humanities Building, it is uncertain whether it would be possible to meet the students’ demands. This is because once the start of construction is confirmed, revising the blueprint is nearly impossible. According to Hauoli, a general real estate company, it takes approximately three months to start construction after finalizing the design and getting permission. If the construction needs to start at the end of this year, the layout should be confirmed by at least the end of September. However, considering that the second semester starts on September 1, gathering students’ opinions and applying them to the new blueprint may not be possible before the end of the month.

On the other hand, some insist that the absence of self-governing spaces is caused by financial limitations. The lack of spaces in the Humanities Building is because the size of the establishment was significantly reduced, which in turn was caused by less-than-successful fundraising efforts. Other recent construction projects such as the New Anam Hospital, Jeong Un-Oh IT Liberal Arts Center, and the College of Medicine Buildings received substantial donation money or were built by money from the hospital itself, not the school. The lack of donation money leaves KU no choice but to reduce the size of the Humanities Building and use the space for prioritized purposes, such as classrooms and lecture halls.

It certainly seems that the problem is far too complex for the school to simply implement students’ opinions. The College of Liberal Arts Student Union demands that the student self-governing space should be in the Humanities Building as per initial plans. However, KU is facing many practical problems: the Humanities Building’s construction fund is lower than expected, and it is uncertain whether the construction plan can be revised. If KU cannot include student self-governing spaces this time, it should provide a better solution for the College of Liberal Arts students. KU should stick to its promise and look into accommodating student self-governing places in Woo Dang Hall, SK Future Hall, or the College of Liberal Arts Building.