Ever since the sexual molestation by three KU medical students stunned the student community in 2011, ten more cases of sexual violence, only counting those that appeared in the media, were committed on the KU campus. The most recent hidden camera scandal at Anam Station in February was perhaps the most shocking of all, as the perpetrator used to be a prominent executive member of the student society and was strongly asking for harsh punishment of the KakaoTalk Group Chat offenders last year. The recurrence of such cases constantly shatters the hope that one day KU will be able to reach a point where the rights of all KU members are adequately protected.

 

However, KU has been doing what it can to prevent further damage and prepare follow-up measures. In 2015, it abolished the outdated regulation on sexual harassment and violence, and introduced a new code on protecting sexual rights and sexual discretion in a broader sense. It established the Human Rights Center in 2016 to overcome the limitation of the Center for Gender Equality, which only focused on sexual rights issues, and to deal with more complicated human rights violations. Implementing a mandatory offline course—Human Rights and Gender Equality education—is a significant measure for the prevention of human rights abuse.

 

Traditionally, KU has been conducting legally required education courses, such as Gender Sensitivity, via Blackboard. Most students took the course as it was a part of the Freshman Seminar course, a prerequisite for graduation. Yet, as the course was held online, where students simply had to watch some video clips and answer a few common sense questions, it failed to deliver a message strong enough to eradicate misconceptions and bring changes in perceptions. Students were often distracted while watching the videos, and shared answers among themselves for the following quizzes.

 

In order to address such inefficiencies, the university introduced new policies regarding preventive education on human rights. Every student who enters after 2017 needs to complete the Human Rights and Gender Equality course to graduate. All freshmen need to register for an offline class once in their first semester and have to take an online course once every year. An online course on Blackboard has been introduced for students in their second year and upward, though it is not obligatory. Established by three institutions on campus—the Human Rights Center, the Center for Gender Equality and the Support Center for Handicapped Students—the curriculum includes issues of human rights, gender equality, and disability awareness.

 

The purpose of the education is quite clear. As a countermeasure to last year’s KakaoTalk Group Chat scandal, the planning committee concluded that a more effective form of education is needed to fix students’ misguided perceptions on human rights. The committee desired the course to be held offline to encourage students’ participation. Lee Jinwon, the Research Professor in International Studies currently working in the Human Rights Center, also remarked, “We tried to highlight the actual cases and enactments of human rights violations, rather than focusing on theoretical aspects.”

 

Despite its high aims, the course failed to meet its own expectations, in the face of an unforgiving reality. While the benefit of holding the course offline would be the interactions between the lecturers and the students, this is impossible in the current classroom environment where 400 students are listening to one lecturer in a large hall. As attendance is the only requirement for course completion, many students were using their cellphones or sleeping during the lecture.

 

In addition, as three lecturers from different institutions had to give a lecture in an hour or so, the lecture was lacking in depth. Jung Dahye (’17, Political Science and International Relations), a freshman who has taken the offline course, commented on this. “Throughout the lecture, I was able to learn about the systematic efforts of KU to build an equal, righteous society, but the lecture was too focused on introducing the KU institutions, not on human rights itself,” she said.

 

In response to such dissatisfaction, Professor Lee said, “Originally, we planned for a small-scale seminar class, but realistically, there were more than 4,800 freshmen whom we had to cover in less than a year.” Indeed, the responsible institutions were confronted with practical limitations, such as the recruitment of lecturers, the number of available classrooms, and time constraints in developing course contents.

 

The lack of notifications and advertisements is another factor that undermines the effectiveness of the course. Although most freshmen are aware of it because it is a required course, few students beyond their sophomore years have been notified about the new recommended course. Still, the institutions in charge are making adjustments, and responding to shortcomings and students’ feedback. While only two options were available at the beginning of the semester— Monday 12:00 P.M. at the Woodang Hall and Thursday 9:00 A.M. at the Science Library—more classes were opened in the evening for students with classes during the daytime periods. The institutions also opened English lectures for foreign students.

 

There is no doubt that KU is continuously making efforts to take responsibility for the past human rights violations on campus and to prevent potential abuses. Nonetheless, its significance and meaning will be eroded without careful consideration of the existing problems, along with sufficient financial and political support for improvement.