[앵커]
An article stating that a professor at KAIST slapped a graduate student he was teaching was posted on social media, causing outrage.
It was known that he hit a graduate student while drunk, but it turned out that the assault wasn’t the only one.
There were also suspicions that the case was delayed.
Let’s connect with a reporter to hear more details. Reporter Yang Dong-hoon!
[기자]
Yes, it is Daejeon.
[앵커]
They say it’s been a while since the assault happened, how did it become known?
[기자]
On the 1st, an exposing article was posted on an anonymous SNS page.
Professor KAIST slapped graduate students in the face, saying that the school was lukewarm.
The professor is still attending school despite the assault, and one of the victims is considering dropping out.
When I checked, it was true that there had been an assault case.
The school explained that two different students had been assaulted twice in mid-May and at the end of May.
However, the details were not confirmed because it was under investigation.
The head of the department issued an apology stating that the damage was confirmed as a fact through the internal network and that the professor also admitted his mistake.
[앵커]
But you say that there are suspicions that the handling of the case is being delayed and the exact truth is not known?
[기자]
Yes, it is also pointed out in the SNS post I mentioned earlier.
The department already confirmed the damage at the beginning of last month, but it was not until the end of the month that it changed its advisor and requested an investigation from the school’s Human Rights and Ethics Center.
In the meantime, there has been no official announcement or apology at the school level.
From the 1st of the last day when an exposing article was posted on social media, I suddenly started to get busy.
The apology from the head of the department mentioned earlier was published on the same day that the revealing article was posted.
Also, on the same day, a delegation of graduate students from the department also posted on the student community to refrain from making reckless guesses because false information is circulating.
In fact, the students responded that they were suspicious because there was no accurate information or an official announcement.
In fact, when I visited the department and listened to the students, the rumors had already spread, but I only knew that it happened once because I was drunk.
[해당 학과 학생 : 술자리에서 교수님이 조금 술을 드시고 그냥 그렇게 학생들 뺨을 때렸다, 이 정도로만 들었어요.]
[앵커]
Since the issue of human rights violations for graduate students has been raised once more, how did schools and student associations say that they are in a position to deal with it in the future?
[기자]
According to the results of a recent nationwide survey of graduate students, 2 out of 10 said that they had experienced human rights violations by professors.
In particular, graduate students in science and engineering are often exposed to various human rights violations such as power abuse and assault.
It is a structure that is inevitably more vulnerable as it lives with professors in a closed space and conducts long-term research.
[윤희상 / 공공운수노조 전국대학원생노동조합지부 고려대분회장 : (이공계 대학원은) 각자가 다 랩실(연구실)이 있기 때문에 되게 폐쇄적인 환경에서 지낼 수밖에 없거든요. 공론화를 했을 때 피해 학생들이 겪을 2차 가해 같은 문제들도 훨씬 크다고 전 생각해요.]
The KAIST Graduate Student Association issued a statement and said that it would wait until the end to see if the case is properly resolved, and demand the school to take measures to prevent recurrence.
He also defined this incident as an incident that once once more raised awareness regarding the poor human rights situation of graduate students.
KAIST announced that it will complete the investigation into the Human Rights Center as soon as possible and respond according to the principle of zero tolerance.
This is YTN Dong-Hoon Yang from Daejeon so far.
YTN Donghoon Yang (yangdh01@ytn.co.kr)
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