Last Friday, the Division of Interdisciplinary Studies has been unilaterally notified by the school that there is a possibility that the division’s entrance quota may be completely replaced by the Crimson College (alias). The impact was immediate; the division posted a wall-poster that criticized the anti-democratic actions taken by the school and the Central Steering Committee began planning a collective action that aimed to suppress the establishment of the Crimson College.

The Crimson College has provoked controversy ever since it was made public last May. A whole lot of Korea University (KU) professors and students overtly criticized the then-called “Future College.” The commotion seemed to fade away until the “Crimson College Promotion Committee” made a single call that one-sidedly announced the probable establishment of Crimson College that would impair many existing colleges in KU with varying severity.

Of course, the Crimson College would not have caused so much controversy had the college be a reasonable creation to KU. However, Crimson College, besides being introduced without any reflection of the students’ opinions, have serious flaws that need to be considered.

It is not just the quorum of the division of interdisciplinary studies that will be taken away. According to the “suggested” plan of the school, two percent of the quorum from each college will also be replaced for future Crimson College students, with the exception of colleges that have relatively small quorums. All classes will also be taught in English, whereas the quality of these English lectures are left in question as mentioned by the students during the talk with President Yeom Jae Ho.

The tuition fee of Crimson College is expected to be around 7.5 million won. No other college in KU has a tuition fee as expensive as this numerical figure. The president of the College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Bok Geum Tae (’14, Interdisciplinary Studies Business), stated that such expensive tuition fee proves that Crimson College “will be a collection of the wealthy elites.”

Moreover, one of the aims of the Crimson College is to build a “residence college,” where it is mandatory for students to live in dormitories for a certain period. Meanwhile, existing KU students have been demanding for more dormitories to live in but have failed to see their demands being met. The Crimson College is therefore yet another move by the school to provide preferential treatment to the to-be Crimson College students while impairing the welfare of the existing students.

The curriculum of the Crimson College is also severely flawed. President Bok first pointed out that the majority of the classes will be done outside classrooms. This way, it is “impossible to guarantee the quality of the lecture.” Moreover, although the school has made studying more competitive for the existing KU students by revising the school-system, students under the Crimson College will mostly be graded by Pass or Fail. The Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), which is a pre-requisite for a degree for Crimson College students, also takes away the competition which is—and will be even more—rampant among other KU students.

The curriculum also lacks focus. Although the school revealed that the Crimson College aims to diversify education that accords with the trending globalization by deviating from the traditional Korean education system, the delegates of the Central Steering Committee all agreed that the curriculum lacked any focal point that will instill students any expertise.

To make things worse, the curriculum is a cacophonous combination of courses from different majors that do not go together so well. Not only will students fail to find their own expertise, but the curriculum will have difficulty recruiting professors or lecturers capable of teaching these courses. The plan has currently suggested that professors from existing colleges will teach the courses according to their respective study major, but at what cost? What do existing KU students receive in return?

These are simply parts of the problem Crimson College has. Students who wish to read the plan suggested by the school are able to have access through KU ibook, and its route to access is specified at the school portal web page. Although this problem has been highlighted as a “replacement of the division of interdisciplinary studies,” the delegates of the Central Steering Committee commented that this is “a problem that affects the entire KU community and colleges,” and therefore called for all students to actively voice their anger against the issue.

A brief session is to be held tomorrow and two debate sessions the next week; yet it is unclear whether it will be adequate enough to voice the student’s anger only during the three sessions. The committee is planning to take a collective action with the students against the establishment of the Crimson College and the revision of the school system, after concluding that the revision contains much relevance in that the new system will create a much competitive environment for the existing KU students while Crimson College students are exempt from it. This is not a problem that pertains to the division of interdisciplinary studies only.

▲ Photo provided by korea.ac.kr.