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A Sogang for Everyone, a New Start Together

- President Sim Jong-hyeok holds meetings with students, professors, staff, and alumni to establish a development plan -







Ahead of the Sogang University Vision Declaration Ceremony (planned for June), President Sim Jong-hyeok took time to welcome the opinions of various school members from the beginning of February to the end of April in order to establish the school development plan to be promoted during his tenure. Since his inauguration, President Sim has emphasized a future created by the synergy of the Sogang family, and for this he has not only met with external personnel and alumni (▶Go to article) and launched the Sogang Development Committee and Sogang Advisory Committee (▶Go to article) but has also been holding meetings for active communication with each member of the school.


• Communication and discussions across different fields began immediately after the inauguration

First of all, through online survey results gathered from the school’s website between February 10 and 21, a window of communication was set up so that anyone could put forward requests to the school and present ideas and opinions on the six areas of ‘undergraduate education, graduate education, research, industry-academia collaboration, internationalization, and administration.’


Based on these investigations, the Executive Department, including President Sim, held meetings with faculty and staff (from March 10 to 19) and the Sogang Alumni Association (April 20), and arranged conversation sessions between the president and students from undergraduate and graduate schools (from April 27 to 29), all with the goal of promoting more active two-way communication with the members of the school. Through such opportunities to gather various opinions and hold Q&A sessions, core strategies and initiatives for each area are becoming more concrete.


• ‘Meetings with the president’ held for faculty and staff

During the initial period, from March 10 to 12 and March 16 to 19, several meetings between President Sim and faculty and administrative department staff were held in order to gain insights on the establishment of a school development plan. These faculty and staff meetings were held on seven occasions (six times for faculty members and one time for other staff) and were attended by 13 executive officers, including the president, executive vice president of Academic Affairs, and executive vice president of Research & External Affairs, as well as 139 faculty members and 47 staff members.




▲ Meetings with the president with faculty members (six meetings from March 10 to 18, covering each faculty, graduate school, and research institute)

 


During the six faculty meetings, which assembled members from each faculty, graduate school, and research institute, from March 10 to 18, discussions were mainly centered on system improvements in the fields of undergraduate and graduate school education, along with research and administration. In particular, regarding undergraduate and graduate education, opinions were proposed on ‘securing nationality diversity of foreign students, expanding scholarships, developing curriculum to improve the graduate school recruitment rate, and improving the lecture time system.’ There were also requests for improving the research performance evaluation system, dissertation incentives, securing flexibility in research administration, and systematic preparation for interim entry into Phase Four of the Brain Korea 21 Project (BK21).


On March 19, a meeting was held between the executive officers, including the president, the executive vice president of Research & External Affairs, and the executive vice president of Academic Affairs, and the team leaders and team members from all administrative departments. At this meeting attended by 47 staff members, various opinions were proposed for the realization of high-quality administrative services, such as the ‘establishment of specific and quantitative goals and a compensation system for each administrative department, introduction of a system to accumulate job expertise, and establishment of a long-term human resources supply and demand plan.’ Following this meeting, President Sim said, “I hope that our members will continue to actively propose ideas for the development and work improvement of each department for many years to come, and I will devise a plan to hold regular conversations with the staff.”

 

 

• Listening to the opinions of the Sogang Alumni Association’s senior leadership regarding the development plan

Since his inauguration, President Sim has emphasized the absolute need for interest and participation from all 100,000 members of the school’s alumni in order to ensure the future development of Sogang, and he has taken active steps toward strengthening relations with alumni and the Sogang Alumni Association.


On April 20, a meeting was held between the Executive Department and the Sogang Alumni Association under the leadership of Executive Vice President Song Tai-kyong of Academic Affairs (Electronics ‘77) to hear the opinions of alumni on the Sogang Development Plan. Vice President Kim Kil-sun of Budget and Planning (Business Administration ‘84) and Vice President Jeong Ok-hyun of Public Affairs (Electronics ‘78) were also present, and from the Sogang Alumni Association, Vice Chairman Jeong Eun-sang (History ‘81), Vice Chairperson Jeong Myung-sook (French Literature ‘83), Vice Chairman Lim Won-hyun (Business Administration ’84), and Secretary General Cho Gwang-hyeon (Economics ’88) took part in the meeting.


 

▲ (From left) Vice President Kim Kil-sun of Budget and Planning, Vice Chairman Lim Won-hyun of Sogang Alumni Association, Vice Chairman Jeong Eun-sang of Sogang Alumni Association, Executive Vice President Song Tai-kyong of Academic Affairs, Vice Chairperson Jeong Myung-sook of the Sogang Alumni Association, Secretary General Cho Gwang-hyeon of the Sogang Alumni Association, and Vice President Jeong Ok-hyun for Public Affairs

   


Vice President Kim Kil-sun of Budget and Planning presented a vision of a “Sogang that contributes to the development of the human community through value creation” in his presentation, explaining the core strategies and initiatives of each area (undergraduate education, graduate education, research, industry-academia collaboration, internationalization, administration, and Sogang values) to achieve this vision. 

 

Vice Chairpersons of the Sogang Alumni Association thanked the alma mater for their hard work in establishing the development plan and discussed and advised on the feasibility of this development plan, its procedures, and financing methods.




 

 

• ‘Conversation with the President’ for undergraduate and graduate students

Following a meeting to collect opinions on the development plan, which took place on March 23 with 63 undergraduate and graduate students, several ‘Conversation with the President’ sessions were held from April 27 to 29 to provide an opportunity for specific questions to be answered or for further requests and suggestions from students at the school.

  

The event was divided into different sessions for undergraduate and graduate schools, with the attendance of 102 undergraduate students in Humanities and Social Sciences on April 27, 56 students in Science and Engineering and the School of Media, Arts, and Science on April 28, and 40 graduate students on April 29. The non-face-to-face conference (through ZOOM) was attended by 18 executive officers, including the president, executive vice president of Academic Affairs, and executive vice president of Research & External Affairs.


 


▲ Executive officers and staff engaging in ‘Conversation with the President’ sessions for undergraduate and graduate students (April 27 to 29)


      

At the two-day meeting with undergraduate students, each faculty member presented suggestions on topics like expanding faculty, curriculum reorganization, subject opening, class registration problem solving, and facility and equipment remodeling. At the meeting with graduate students, the main contents were related to increasing recruitment for graduate schools, establishing a scholarship expansion plan, and requesting comprehensive guidelines for foreign graduate students. On April 29, students enrolled in the Graduate Program in Southeast Asian Studies at the Graduate School who participated in the Conversation with the President said, “We are looking forward to seeing improvements at the school level given this opportunity to request interest and support for practical problems in the operation of cooperative courses between departments.”


The three-day meeting, which served as a venue for sincere dialog between students and the Executive Department, became an opportunity for members to resolve their queries regarding the school and to further strengthen communication. A student (Department of Electronic Engineering, 2014) said, “As soon as his term of office began, President Sim Jong-hyeok opened the Conversation with the President sessions, just as we had been looking forward to this year, thereby confirming his willingness to communicate.” He added, “I feel that Sogang is changing in a positive way when I see that the president’s words and those of each of the school’s executive officers have actually been reflected in school management, and I look forward to the development of Sogang under the president’s promise to conduct conversations every semester.”


Meanwhile, additional opinions and follow-up measures regarding departments’ questions mentioned at the undergraduate meeting will be shared in the near future as a general announcement on the Sogang University website.

 


• The main agent in school development is “Everyone in Sogang’s Family”

President Sim said, “As the main agents who develop and lead the school are Sogang’s students, professors, staff, and alumni, I made an effort so that all members of the school could voice their opinions as much as possible in establishing the development plan that can be taken as the central axis in the future direction of Sogang 2030.” He then added, “We are actively referencing the valuable opinions we have heard through meetings held over the past three months to devise tasks according to the development plan. Finally, through in-depth discussions with the Sogang Development Committee and Sogang Advisory Committee, those opinions will be further refined and published in due course.”


 

 


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