Inaugural Address
The 17th President of Yonsei University
Kap-Young Jeong
February 7, 2012
Greetings to the Honorable Chairman of the Board of Directors Woo Young Bang, Board members, former Presidents, Yonsei University members, and distinguished guests!
I am here today as the seventeenth president of a university that, 127 years ago, introduced higher education to this country, and it is with great humility that I am prepared to take on its stewardship. As the newest president of Yonsei University, I stand before God who created this institution and all of you who have dedicated yourselves to it, and I am impressed less by the honor of my position than by a sense of duty and awesome responsibility in my role.
As I have prepared to assume the presidency, I have often called to mind Dr. Horace Underwood, who dedicated his youth to the founding of Yonhi College. What might Dr. Underwood have thought as he built Yonhi College in a Chosun he described as a “stubbornly stained darkness” populated by those “chained with poverty and superstition”? I have struggled with questions of how I might honor Yonsei’s beginnings as I look toward its future.
My relationship with Yonsei began 41 years ago, when I entered the Economics Department as a freshman in 1971. An ordinary student who grew up dreaming on Baekyang-ro, I returned to my alma mater as a professor in 1986 with the privilege of teaching the next generation of Yonseians to dream. Looking back on my last twenty-six years as a professor, I personally have been wanting in many ways. It was thanks to the trust, dedication, and warm consideration of the Yonsei community that I was able to successfully carry out my roles as Vice President of Academic Affairs and Senior Vice President of Wonju Campus.
Yonsei has stood at the heart of Korea’s modern history since its founding. We have sown Christian values of truth and freedom in this land, and we have taken a leadership role in this society’s development. Today we are faced with a rapidly changing environment and diverse pressures on higher education. Universities exist within an era of globalization and academic disciplines must embrace interdisciplinarity, amidst changes in political, economic, and social structures. These are both challenges and opportunities for Yonsei University, and we must respond with a new and timely paradigm for higher education.
Recent controversies over university tuition and admissions policies typify the current threats to the autonomy and self-definition of private universities. We find ourselves in a situation in which the pursuit of global competitiveness for Korean universities, a commitment to excellence in higher education, and the value of private universities itself is under question.
I propose that our challenges also present an opportunity, and also envision that we are entering the phase of Yonsei’s “third founding.” We can consider the university’s inception of Jejungwon, Severance Medical College and Yonhi College as the “first founding” of Yonsei University; and the University’s last century, from the merger of Severance and Yonhi into Yonsei University, the opening of the Wonju Campus, and Yonsei's role in pioneering Korea's modernization, as the “second founding.”
Central to the “third founding” of Yonsei University is the Yonsei International Campus at Incheon. YIC’s inception was an important project for my predecessor and the Board of Directors, and YIC’s significance does not lie merely in an expansion of our physical campus. The Incheon site is a testament to the past and the future and a land of miracles. YIC is built on a landfill, itself a miracle of turning water into solid ground. It is a vanguard of Yonsei’s globalization and of digital technology, and will serve as the foundation of Yonsei’s ascension as Asia’s World University. At the same time, Incheon is a testament to our origins, since it is the soil upon which Dr. Underwood first set foot to begin his mission of bringing light to a bleak Chosun. As we honor our founding spirit and philosophy, Incheon becomes an appropriate magnet for our “third founding.”
Respected Yonsei colleagues,
During my tenure as President, my priority will be to reaffirm Yonsei's prestige as an institution of higher education by a “Back to the Basics” focus on ensuring the highest-quality education for our students. At Yonsei International Campus at Incheon we will introduce a Residential College system, a central component of world class universities such as Harvard, Yale, and Oxford. The Residential College will integrate living and learning, where faculty and students interact at a deeper level, students of all social and cultural backgrounds learn to appreciate diversity, and communication and cooperation are fostered.
Our university’s mission must be to nurture students who are considerate and respectful of differences, bring light to the darkest corners of our society, and promote social cooperation. The holistic education central to a Residential College integrates the intellectual, moral, and spiritual aspects of education, pioneering a model of internationalized comprehensive education within Korea.
For Aristotle, morality served as the highest goal of intellectual pursuit, so that “academic excellence supported by moral values” is a central principle of the field of ethics. I believe that a focus on morality is a virtue that Korea today requires of Yonsei as a university, and we must make this a central purpose of a Yonsei education.
With such goals in mind, the motto for my tenure as Yonsei’s president will be Excellentia cum dignitate, or “excellence with dignity.” We must strive towards excellence in research and education while maintaining dignity throughout. In a world of materialism and capitalism, Yonsei will keep to a purity of purpose, holding true to its history as well as its ideals. Only then can Yonsei members come together as a community, maximizing individual potential as well as fostering a productive synergy. In this era of polarization and ideological conflict, Yonsei must take a leadership role in projecting a vision for the future of higher education and producing a new discourse for our society that transcends polarization and ideological conflict.
The new history of Yonsei’s “third founding” will not be limited to the educational arena. Research standards will surpass world-class expectations, cooperation with industry expanded, and research will be viewed as an ecosystem that must be nurtured. The physical campus will be remade to generate an environment-friendly site for education, research, and campus culture. I will also pursue innovation and professionalization of the administrative structure, development of sustainable finance strategies, and a reaffirmation of Yonsei identity and Yonsei pride. Meanwhile, Yonsei is now the only university in Korea to hold four campuses. A principle of autonomy as well as integration for our multiple campuses will strengthen our vast institution. In these ways Yonsei will take a leadership role as a pioneer in twenty-first century Korean higher education.
Beloved Yonseians,
Fifty-five years ago, the merger of Yonhi College with Severance Medical College was not just a campus event but a public statement that Yonsei would reach out to the world. (“Yon” = reach out; “sei” = world). Our purpose of a “third founding” is yet another avowal that Yonsei will become one of the world’s leading universities. I believe in the momentum and potential that will take Yonsei to the top of world academic institutions, even as we nurture the core values that define us.
The new presidential election process I just experienced was an opportunity for me to appreciate the Yonsei community’s desire for change and progress. During my tenure, I will keep true to my promises to date, achieve needed innovations in university education, and lead Yonsei to fulfill its calling as the “light and salt” of the world.
Light and salt are well represented in Yonsei's color blue, symbolic of the ocean. The ocean embraces all colors and yet maintains its distinct blue. The ocean is also a reservoir of salt, that ingredient essential to life. The deep sea, too, is home to creatures of all colors, sizes, and characters, yet never loses its color. Herein lies the essence of the ocean. Yonsei is also a great ocean, carrying at its core a God-given calling but also advocating the pursuit of advanced knowledge.
Respected Yonseians,
I close today by asking a favor of all of you here today: I request that you share the weight of responsibility that I have taken on as president. I ask this in part to have you fill in my limitations, but more because Yonsei’s providential calling is so precious, and because we all share in valuing Yonsei’s dignity and essence. Yonsei’s first president George Paik (Paik Nak Joon), who led Yonsei’s postwar growth, once said that “People come and go, but the spirit of Yonsei lives on forever.”
With your help, I aim to inaugurate a new period of Yonsei history-making. By encouraging a liberal and creative campus culture and instilling a spirit of service, I envision a world-class university full of passion and energy. This is an attainable goal because, after all, this institution, where we make history, is Yonsei University!
Our journey, which begins here and now, will make the new history of Yonsei, the new history of Korea, and the new history of the world. This university, begun 127 years ago through God’s will and the dreams and dedication of a missionary pioneer, now prepares for a new phase in history driven by all of our dedication and energy. May God bless all your households and bring all that you wish to achieve. Thank you.
