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| ▲ Students opened a press conference regarding the faculty unproceeding the 9.17 General Students' Meeting items that are discussed during the GSC-faculty meeting on September 21. | ||
| /Photograph from Kim Ji-seun | ||
On October 15th at 12:30 P.M., the General Student Council opened a press conference urging the school to accept and actually enforce students’ demands regarding the resignation of President Han Tae-sik (Ven Bogwang Sunim) and Ven Ilmyun Sunim in front of Main Hall. Kim Geon-jung, the vice chairperson of the General Student Council, claimed that he will start to proceed a hunger strike and to continue until the school accepts the demand.
Choi Kwang-baek, the Chairperson of the GSC, noted that there has been no change since the Students’ General Meeting which was accomplished in 15 years. He claimed that even though the school is continuously avoiding direct answer to this, since General Student Council has a duty to actualize the items passed in the Students’ General Meeting, they will continue to put pressure towards the school.
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| ▲ Students are preparing for the hunger strike of Kim Geon-jung, the vice chairperson of General Student Council. | ||
| /Photograph by Kim Ji-seun | ||
Throughout the press conference, Kim Geon-jung, the vice chairperson of the General Student Council, read out the fight resolution saying that the school should implement the demands of GSC immediately. Then, Kim declared that he would begin a hunger-strike right after the press conference and recited the fast resolution. He mentioned that the 1800 out of 2000 students agreed to depose Ven Ilmyun Sunim who is suspected to committing a crime of stealing cultural assets as well as President Han Tae-sik (Ven Bogwang Sunim) who is at the center of controversy in terms of independent religious intervention and plagiarizing the thesis.
He said that on September 21th and October 7th, the GSC and the Student Affairs had table conferences about the items. Kim Geon-jung maintained that even though the point that they had conferences together might seem like a sign that the school is following such movement positively, but he said that it is wrong that the school is continuously only saying that they are considering the items.
However, after the press conference, the Director of Student Affairs, Choi ho-jin, asserted that there are some distorted parts to the GSC. He explained that other than the demands written in the booklet, there were more requirements for each related departments. He emphasized that the Student Affairs had never avoided the GSC and is trying hard to accept their opinions and said that there is nothing they can say about the resignation of President Han Tae-sik (Ven Bogwang Sunim) and Ven Ilmyun Sunim.
During the press conference, both the General Student Council and the Student Affairs gave controversial arguments.