SNU Students Show Their Cyber Power
It goes without saying in Korea that there is nothing more frightening than netizens, also known as cyber citizens, probably due to this country having one of the most developed IT infrastructures in the world. SNU also has an online community on which students can upload personal opinions or clippings from other websites or newspapers on everything from politics or job postings to blind dates and love stories. This site, where you can find possibly everything about life at SNU, is www.Snulife.com. Snulife.com, which was launched in 2000, celebrated its tenth anniversary last year, in commemoration of which multicolor pens were given out to students as a souvenir. At first it started off as a small online board where students shared their daily experiences and troubles. The website also contains valuable information such as what the professor for Economics 101 is like, where the best cafe closest to school is, and what your Mexican roommate meant when he said"Crees que le tiene miedo a la oscuridad?" Snulife.com is literally a site for SNU life.
Gratitude to 'Shinyang Grandpa'
Recently, as more students are starting to make use of the website, it has gradually emerged into a hub for SNU students' social movements. On September 30 of last year, students who voluntarily got together through Snulife hosted a ceremony to express their gratitude to Jeong Seok Kyoo, the CEO of Shinyang Culture Foundation, who donated 13.3 billion KRW to his alma mater SNU. With his donation, SNU built three high-tech buildings dedicated to students -- one near the College of Engineering, another next to the College of Humanities, and the most recently completed one for the College of Social Sciences -- to provide them with seminar rooms, e-libraries, and exhibitions.The students started a relay donation of their own, which called on students to participate by giving as little as 1000 KRW for the establishment of scholarships for students from low-income families. For the ceremony, they uploaded announcements inviting students to draw pictures to be used to make a collage of Mr. Jeong. Finally, on the day of the ceremony, they presented their token of appreciation and thank you letters to Mr. Jeong. All this started with a simple comment written on Snulife:"I wish there was something I could do to express my thanks to the Shinyang Hal-a-beo-ji" (which literally means grandfather, but is also used to express warm emotions towards an older man of Mr.Jeong's age range).
Out with Sexual Harassment
In addition to emulating Shinyang grandpa's pleasure of sharing, SNU students also became apostles of justice. Sometime during the third week of November 2010, a student uploaded a remark on the free board saying that the manager of a Family Mart that recently opened on campus regularly sexually harassed his part-time workers. The remark only consisted of four lines, but over twenty students replied sharing their experiences, saying they could never agree more. The contents of students' comments revealed that he was known also to have made comments about the 'aesthetic level' of female students and to have been seen drunk on duty.
As more and more witnesses verifying the manager's improprieties spoke out, a student suggested a boycott of that convenience store. The boycott was unrealistic, so the students on Snulife collectively sent a formal letter of complaint to the Family Mart head office customer center about the manager's misconduct. On November 22, only three or four days after the first remark appeared on Snulife, the manager was officially fired.
On Snulife.com people are sharing opinions on various topics even at this very moment. It has evolved into something greater than a Q/A center or a message board. It has become a place that encourages students to voluntarily come together and make a difference.
Although Snulife is only provided in Korean at the moment, the operators of the website hope to be able to invite the participation of foreign students by launching Snulife in another language. Foreign students are allowed to join, however, due to the language barrier, only a small minority who has learned how to read Korean currently utilizes Snulife. We hope Snulife can also be actively used by foreign students as well in order for it to be a true online SNU community.
January 17, 2011
Written by LEE BoYoung, SNU English Editor, bylee0708@gmail.com, ?