|
Eighty young Seoul National University professors submitted a recommendation on Friday calling for a change in the school¡¯s ethics regulations so that professors running for political office are not guaranteed automatic return to school if they fail to get nominated or are defeated in an election. The recommendation would make it mandatory for professors seeking nominations from political parties to run for public office to file a leave of absence, while their reinstatement would be decided on by a personnel committee following a review of their research accomplishments. Also, professors who are reinstated will not be able to take a sabbatical year until they have taught for a required amount of time.
One professor at the College of Education at SNU, who ran for office in a constituency in Gyeonggi Province on the Grand National Party ticket, gave lectures until March 20, long after the new semester began, waiting all along for his nomination. He applied for leave only once he had been nominated, apparently intending to return to academia as if nothing had happened if that had failed. SNU had to rush and find a professor from outside the university to teach that class. The personnel committee at the College of Education last week agreed to recommend the professor tender his resignation.
A total of 48 professors, including 16 running for local constituencies, have been nominated by political parties. But not one of them has resigned. And out of the 100 or so professors who applied for nominations by political parties for public office, only 10 have either said they would not take on classes during the first semester or sought to use their sabbatical or research period. That shows how many politically driven professors have no conscience.
At one private university, a professor failed to get elected to public office in the 15th, 16th and 17th general elections and repeatedly applied for leave to run in the elections for over 10 years. He finally tendered his resignation in 2005 after his students protested. There¡¯s even a so-called ¡°phantom professor¡± who has retained his academic position for 11 years while serving as the head of a government-run agency and as a lawmaker for two terms.
Journalists or public servants who run for public office must resign 60 to 120 days before election day, but these professors have abused the absence of such requirements in their profession. During party nominations in the previous presidential election and the actual race that followed, anywhere from a few hundred to a thousand university professors took part in the camps of the main presidential candidates. They skipped lectures at whim, busy spending all night coming up with policies and campaign pledges. Their services were aimed at winning rewards from the party after the election. If they had spent that same amount of energy on their research and improving their lectures, our universities would have progressed significantly.
They may differ in terms of their political affiliations, but these professors are in the same boat when it comes to their lack of attention to the quality of their lectures and research. The student council at one private university is planning a campaign to demand professors to return the graded papers to the students to prevent shoddy marking based on skimming of titles, length and handwriting.
Universities must come up with regulations that automatically expel professors who take a set number of years off to run for public office. And professors who vow to return to academia within the mandatory period of absence must be evaluated based on their past research records and future potential.
If universities are thorough in evaluating their professors¡¯ research track record, we will no longer see academics who view their university positions as insurance while running for public office.
|
