New Year’s Address from President Jeong Kap-young On January 2nd, Yonsei University President Jeong Kap-young delivered a New Year’s address at the Main Hall, Baekyanggwan. He went over the achievements of 2012, and laid out the goals for the New Year. President Jeong said that, “Yonsei University will introduce, in 2013, the Residential College (RC), a form of education implemented in prestigious schools in advanced countries. Yonsei has reformed the course retake policy. Furthermore, the groundwork for improvement in the school infrastructure, including the renovation of Baekyang-ro, the expansion of research and education space on campus, has been completed. In addition, Yonsei made efforts to open new communication channels and overall reform by establishing special committees for future strategy, PR and corporate-university cooperation to ensure that major policies are successfully implemented.” In regard to developments in the New Year, he said that, “Many dreams and goals will be realized in 2013 which is a very important year. In March, with the completion of additional new facilities in Songdo Campus, Yonsei will mark a new start in God’s grace. The large-scale construction worth 314,000m² (95,000 pyeong) is equivalent to around 60% of the area of Sinchon campus. The newly completed facilities will be invaluable assets to Yonsei’s globalization strategy.” President Jeong continued to explain that, “Through the RC development, Yonsei aims to foster individuals with creative energy, communication skills, leadership and a community spirit who have global competitiveness. The internationalized educational environment at RC will enable this goal. Yonsei’s RC system will be an institutional model for Korean universities seeking growth beyond Korea.” He added that, “Improvement of campus infrastructure in Sinchon will be sought in earnest this year. Baekyang-ro renovation project will transform Baekyang-ro, a space symbolic of Yonsei, into a green eco-friendly space. The project has historical significance as Baekyang-ro is a place of memory and romance for some 300,000 alumni who spent their youth here at Yonsei.” Besides development in infrastructure, he said that, “The research and education sectors will also undergo great changes in order to increase our school’s academic capacity. An integrated cross-campus research center and a research map will be established early this year to encourage interdisciplinary studies.”