학교에게 있어 학생들은 학부모가 자녀를 생각하는 것만큼이나 그 무엇과도 바꿀 수 없는 소중한 존재입니다. KAIST는 ‘우수한 영재 육성’이라는 교육 목표를 유지하면서, 과중한 부담에서 오는 학생들의 고민을 해소하고 원만한 학교생활을 위한 최선의 대책을 찾기 위해, 학사, 상담, 생활, 학비문제 등 학교가 할 수 있는 모든 영역에 걸쳐 개선할 점이 있는지, 교직원과 학생 대표는 물론 관련 전문가들과 함께 마음을 열어놓고 지혜를 모아 검토하고 있습니다.

모든 문제를 한 번에 해결할 수 있는 간단명료한 대책을 누구나 찾고 싶어 하지만, 그런 묘책은 존재하지 않습니다. 이 같은 비극의 재발을 막기 위해서는 우리 모두 신중한 판단과 사려 깊은 자세로 서로 합심해 대책을 찾는 게 필요합니다.

궁극적으로 해결책은 우리들 각자의 마음과 자세에 달렸다고 봅니다. 만일 우리가 ‘항상 이길 수는 없으며, 나중에 이기기 위해 때로는 지금 질 수 있다’는 생각을 받아들일 수만 있다면, 우리는 이런 문제를 충분히 극복할 수 있다고 봅니다. 우리 주위의 성공한 사람들도 이전에 수없이 실패하고 좌절해봤기 때문에 현재의 위치에 있는 것입니다.

학교의 정책들은 교육적인 목표를 달성하고, 동시에 교육, 학교 위상 정립, 미래 사회 지도자를 양성하는 데 있어 비효율적인 문제점들을 해결하기 위해 도입됩니다. KAIST에서 시행하고 있는 많은 정책들은 그동안 KAIST가 만성적으로 앓아왔던 문제점을 해결해왔습니다. 물론, 우리는 이런 정책들을 꾸준히 재검토해 그 효력을 보완하고 개선해나가도록 할 것입니다. 학생들 하나하나가 세계를 이끌어 나갈 미래 지도자가 되도록 우리는 최선을 다 할 것 입니다.

앞으로 더 이상 KAIST에 이 같은 비극적인 사건이 일어나지 않도록 우리 모두가 함께 노력하기를 당부 드립니다. 우리는 최선을 다해 이 위기를 극복할 것 입니다.

다시 한 번, KAIST에서 일어난 슬픈 사건들에 대해 심심한 애도의 뜻을 표하면서, KAIST와 KAIST 학생들에 대한 여러분의 성원에 감사드립니다.

2011년 4월4일

KAIST 총장 서남표 드림

April 4, 2011

Dear Friends and Family of KAIST,

We are all saddened by the recent tragic death that invo1ved one of KAIST’s students.

I, as the president of KAIST, apologize to his fami1y, his friends, and the Korean people for this tragic event. We wish that we could have done more to prevent this tragic loss of precious life.

At KAIST, our deans and VPs have undertaken a number of actions to prevent this type of tragedy from occurring. This is particularly important since we have had more than our share of these sad events since KAIST was established 40 years ago. We have instituted a number of new policies and programs to take better care of our students. KAIST has re-organized the freshman class into small groups and has them living in groups in the same dormitory. We assigned many professors and graduate students to the freshman class as supervisors. We have also adopted the Harvard program for “happy learning". And there are many other programs devised by our professors and staff to support and care for our students. However, it is clear that we need to do more. We will do everything that we can to prevent this kind of tragedy in the future with the understanding that no one has been able to eliminate this problem altogether from society in general and in particular from higher educational institutions.

We have studied other universities’ policies and programs for dealing with this type of problems on their campuses. Many universities that have highly competitive students have studied this problem for many years.

Students at these leading universities are very competitive, always trying to do better than everyone else. These students prefer and choose these competitive institutions. Many students want to study at top-notch universities where most students are as good as they are, although they could have gone to less competitive universities. Parents also encourage their children to go to the most prestigious and competitive universities. Indeed they do their best to enroll their children at these very competitive universities, because these schools produce the best graduates. They know that these competitive universities tend to produce the best scientists and engineers who solve the problems of humanity, leading scholars who shape the destiny of humanity through their work, and competent leaders who provide better quality of life for millions of people. Most talented students want to become one of these future leaders through their education and thus study at these highly competitive universities.

Universities must do their part to live up to the expectation of the students who choose their institutions. They must educate the future leaders of our society and humanity. If these competitive institutions fail to maintain the highest academic standards, the entire society and the nation will lose and be disappointed. And the most talented students will no longer choose to come to these universities. Instead, they will choose to go to other more competitive universities, here or abroad. It is hard to build a KAIST or a Harvard, but very easy to destroy them. Ever since its founding 40 years ago, KAIST has produced over 40,000 graduates who have become leaders in their fields throughout the world.

Students today have to deal with many diverse issues, perhaps more than the earlier generations did when they were in college. They also have many distractions - social media, electronic games, etc. - that can derail the academic progress of students. Our curriculum is also very demanding, because professors know that students must learn the fundamentals of their fields in order to be successful. Students are under constant pressure from school, their parents, fellow students, and social life. Many also have financial pressures. They also have challenging careers goals and ambitions that create self-imposed pressure. Many feel insecure in meeting the future challenges and opportunities, because they can only speculate about them without actually experiencing them. This increased pressure is the price that all of us pay for the modem life that gives us so many advantages and opportunities that our ancestors did not have. There is always a quid pro quo in almost every aspect of our life. Not all things come free - free of effort, pain, and sacrifice. Humanity is yet to find the utopia that we dream of.

KAIST will work closely with students, parents, and professional experts who have dealt with these problems in the past. It will take a joint effort among all of the people who constitute our community -- people who work and live together closely. All of us need to study this problem and learn the best way of dealing with human issues. Although it is tempting to seek a single cure-all (i.e., the silver bullet), dispense simple folklore and wisdom that appeal to common sense, and look for the villain, it is going to take serious, considered, and concerted actions to minimize the recurrence of these tragedies.

Ultimately, the solution is in the minds and attitudes of each one of us. If we accept the idea that we cannot always win, we can overcome many problems. In fact, most successful people have failed many times in the past. And it is important to take pride in our accomplishments and in the contributions that we make to society rather than to focus on external validation such as grades and awards.

Academic policies are established to achieve specific academic goals and to deal with specific problems that are not conducive for effective learning, institution building, and developing future leaders. Many of our policies have eliminated the chronic problems that we had at KAIST. However, we will re-examine the effectiveness of these policies to continually update them and improve them. In the end, we will do the best that we can to enable each and every one of our students to become future leaders of the world and productive members of society.

I ask everyone to work with us and help us to overcome these problems. We will do our best.

Please send us your suggestions. We will incorporate your ideas as we plan our future course of action to make KAIST one of the best universities in the world.

Again, my personal apologies for these tragic events that have occurred at KAIST.

Thank you for your support of KAIST and KAIST students.

With best regards,

Nam Pyo Suh
President
KAIST