Former Seoul National University (SNU) professor Kim Min Su has won his lawsuit against the university demanding he be reinstated after failing to be rehired by the university for reason of insufficient research achievements. The court found there were problems inherent in the method of choosing what material qualified for review and in the results and evaluation of the review process. The decision translates to a major advance in the defense of academic freedom and democracy in education, since it sets a precedent where the issue of the rehiring of professors has been found to qualify as the subject of an administrative lawsuit, and because the judgment determined there were errors in the details of Kim's review and the school's refusal to renew his contract.
Even after the decision, SNU officials have been unable to decide whether they're going to reinstate Kim to his position. Reportedly there are various suggestions being considered, including an appeal to the Supreme Court, conditional rehiring, and going through the contract renewal process all over again. But the decision clearly finds that SNU's refusal to renew his contract was wrong and it is unlikely the Supreme Court would overturn that finding, so those suggestions are faulty. The university president needs to reflect on how he never looked at the problems in the process and misused his hiring authority in refusing to rehire Kim, and it would be common sense and reason to reinstate Kim to his position.
SNU also needs to give Kim an apology and compensation for stealing six years of his precious time and for seriously hurting his reputation, which led him to suffer much agony and engage in a lonely struggle. The officials who continued with an unreasonable case while spending the people's taxes must be held strictly responsible. President Jeong Un Chan needs to feel considerable responsibility for allowing the situation to come to this.
As a result of the court's findings, Kim's assertion that the real reason SNU did not rehire him is because of a paper he wrote about the pro-Japanese, collaborationist activities of the professors who proceeded him in the university's Colleg of Fine Arts becomes more convincing. Furthermore there are suspicions that an individual set to be hired by the college was one of the outside participants in Kim's review committee. That says a lot about the practice of "killing critical scholarship" and the "culture of cliquism" that exists in the academic community. That is why one cannot help but look at this case in the context of university reform.
The Hankyoreh, 31 January 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Reinstate Professor Kim Min Su Immediately |
