On January 22, the tuition fee committee of Korea University (KU) announced that the tuition fee would remain the same after the fourth round of meeting held at the 4.18 Memorial Hall. Despite the students’ proposal to reduce the tuition by 2.9 percent, a university official was quoted as saying, “Neither increase nor decrease in tuition is feasible due to budget constraints.”

The committee consists of six students and six school officials, along with a professional accountant handpicked by the President of KU. However, the very structure of the committee has stirred a controversy since the outside accountant is deemed as biased. Not surprisingly, the meeting came to an end with seven votes in favor of freezing the tuition and six votes against.

A comprehensive set of evidence provided by the students has proved futile in the face of the school official’s flat-out denial and uncooperative attitude. Unwilling to accept the outcome, some students staged a sit-in outside the building and refused to let them pass, with some shedding tears of frustration.

In addition, they pointed the finger at the school’s lack of transparency in disclosing the annual budget. Baek Shin Hye, the vice president of Korea University Graduate Student Association (KUGSA), said, “Not only was the school overdue in submitting the relevant documents, but there were also some irregularities in the information.”