Beginning not long ago you may have seen new faces hand signaling the road in front of the administration building while on your scooter or walking to and from the shuttle bus. SNU now has female police officers that especially female members of the SNU community can approach with ease. Here is a short interview with them.

What motivated you to apply to become a campus police officer?
"Well, we saw the job opening on the Internet and thought we could make use of our experiences from the army and working for the government."
Kim Hanseul (age 27) holds a 6th Dan (degree) Black Belt in hapkido (Korean martial arts), judo, and taekwondo; Choi Eunju (age 32) has served in the army and holds a 3rd Dan Black Belt in taekwondo; Hong Suyeon (age 31) holds a 2nd Dan Black Belt in judo and has worked in the police department of a government affiliated institution.

So what exactly do you do?
The police on SNU's main campus are specifically supervised by the chief of police of the Gwanak security jurisdiction area. This type of police force can only be hired by government institutions or public facilities. SNU is the only university in the whole country with this type of police force. This means that the police force at SNU is one of the most reliable and well-trained throughout the country.

At SNU there were a total of 11 male cops before the three female officers joined recently. They are on duty 24 hours a day. Female police officers were hired following the recent surge in service demands from female students and professors.

"We protect women walking home late at night around SNU's circular road, from sexual harassment frequent in the women's restrooms, and from other circumstances as needed. Because SNU has many roads near the mountains that become very dark at night a lot of people are calling for help."

Since October you have been working here. What is the most memorable case you've solved so far or a moment you've felt rewarded.
"A while ago we protected a female staffperson from a stalker, and helped a student in a dangerous situation."

In my case, not knowing there was the campus police to help, I had to anxiously hurry home from the library late at night. How can students in a similar situation call for help?
"First of all, from buildings high up near Mt. Gwanak, like the College of Engineering (Building No. 301), we provide a pick up service to the front or back gate, or the dormitory. However, some students abuse this privilege. For example, once when we arrived after a female student’s call, three other of her male friends were waiting to hitch a lift."

"Please contact us whenever you experience an emergency or feel unsafe or threatened. Currently SNU has five emergency call stations and 16 CCTV cameras, however considering the size of this campus that is still insufficient. We are here for the socially vulnerable. Please contact 02-880-8112/ 8119." (The campus safety office is located in Building No.72.)

Female members of the SNU community now clearly have more protection and support, and most importantly have someone who can really understand the problems only females may face.

There are, in addition, three concerns and hopes that the campus police have at present and continually.

First of all, that these campus police should never be mobilized to hinder student demonstrations or anything that might suppress the freedom of student activities at SNU. Secondly, that the current escort service should eventually be extended to all members (including men) of the SNU community, or another solution sought such as providing more shuttle buses during nighttime. And last but not least, they hope to receive warm hellos around campus whenever you happen to run into them.

Written by LEE BoYoung, SNU English Editor, bylee0708@gmail.com   ?
Proofread by Brett Johnson, SNU English Editor, morningcalm2@gmail.com