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What will SNU look like in 2040? – The SNU Talk Concert

On November 11, the SNU Talk Concert was held at the Cultural Center auditorium (Building 73) with the theme of “Designing the SNU of 2040 with SNU’s President.” While the previous Talk Concert that was held in May discussed the human rights of COVID-19 patients, this one gathered current students, alumni, professors, and the president of the university to collaboratively plan out what SNU should look like in the future. The panel for this event consisted of SNU’s President Oh Se-Jung, webtoon author Byun Jimin and Kakao Entertainment executive Jayden Kang, all of whom are SNU graduates, and Kwon Jae-yoon, a current student. The offline audience was limited to 200 people and the event was streamed live on SNU’s YouTube channel and Zoom.

The 2nd Talk Concert
The 2nd Talk Concert

Metaverse, global, and leader as keywords of the envisioned future

The Talk Concert was divided into two parts. The first part focused on four keywords of SNU’s envisioned future: “leader,” “innovation,” “coexistence,” and “global,” while the second introduced the winning piece of the “My Vision for SNU in 2040” contest. Before commencing the discussion of the keywords, president Oh Se-Jung gave an opening address, in which he shared that the event was organized because he wanted to hear the students’ opinion on how they think the university should “continue forward in the face of a rapidly changing world.”

For the keyword discussion, each member of the panel chose a keyword from the list of words that were chosen through a survey prior to the event by current SNU students. Then, the panel members discussed their opinions on their selected keywords.

The first member to discuss their keyword was current SNU student Kwon Jihyun, who selected the word “leader” to describe SNU’s future. “Communication skills are the most important qualities that a leader needs,” she said. “If SNU continues to hold platforms for communication such as these Talk Concerts, the SNU of 2040 will produce prominent leaders in various fields.”

Continuing from Kwon Jihyun’s vision, president Oh Se-Jung chose the keywords “innovation,” and “coexistence” as the virtues that SNU members should have as leaders. “Attempting new activities and ideas that others have not ventured into is innovation,” President Oh said, emphasizing the importance of innovation in changing the world. Pointing out that the polarization of society is one of the biggest problems in the fourth industrial revolution, he stated that “coexistence is a virtue that an SNU member must have as a leader.”

Using her experience with virtual reality in creating a webtoon, webtoon author Byun Jimin envisioned a future society related to the “metaverse.” She introduced the results of a study where the “metaverse natives,” the generation who grew up in a digital environment and are familiar with navigating virtual platforms, defined their identity as a generation that contributes to society through communication and cooperation. “The metaverse poses the question of how we will set up and maintain cooperative relationships with others. Once we are prepared to answer this question, our future will be brighter.”

Executive Jayden K chose the keyword “global.” He explained that it is more important to consider the factors that will not change in the future’s global society. “The desire to consume better content and products related to food, clothing, and shelter will remain the same globally. Therefore, efforts to fulfill this desire must continue.”

The future of SNU that the students envision

The next part of the Talk Concert consisted of introducing and discussing the winning pieces of the competition “My Vision for SNU in 2040.” After interview clips of the students that won the participation and excellence award were shown, a live discussion was held with the grand prize winner Kwon Jae-yoon. The piece was titled “A day in the life of an SNU student of the incoming class of 2040” and depicted SNU’s future, especially the changes in the areas of internationalization and social contribution, cutting-edge technology and education, communication, and environmental contribution. Kwon Jae-yoon, who participated in the Talk Concert as a panel member, commented that SNU will have to continue seeking to develop in the face of a rapidly changing society. “I hope that SNU will continue launching platforms for communication like this Talk Concert to discuss together the future of SNU.”

The Participation Award Artwork “Baekhak’s school life” (created by Han Hee-jae, College of Nursing)
The Participation Award Artwork “Baekhak’s school life” (created by Han Hee-jae, College of Nursing)

The Grand Prize Artwork “A day in the life of an SNU student of the incoming class of 2040” (created by Kwon Jae-yoon, College of Humanities)
The Grand Prize Artwork “A day in the life of an SNU student of the incoming class of 2040”
(created by Kwon Jae-yoon, College of Humanities)

The participation award winning piece was called “Baekhak’s school life” which depicted Baekhak, a deaf student, hanging out with a diverse group of students and overall enjoying university life. The artwork showed SNU’s development in terms of diversity where the lectures provided automatic subtitles for deaf students and more foreign students walked around campus. “I was influenced by my friends who were writing articles related to the Barrier Free movement*, or trying to practice it in their daily lives”, said Han Hee-jae, the author of the artwork.

The Talk Concert was an invaluable opportunity for current SNU members and SNU alumni to discuss SNU’s future. All the Talk Concerts held thus far are available to watch on the SNU YouTube channel.

*Barrier Free movement: A movement that advocates eliminating physical and systematic obstacles to create a better society for the elderly and people with disabilities

Source: https://www.snu.ac.kr/snunow/snu_story?md=v&bbsidx=134323
Written by Yeryoung Lee, SNU English Editor, yeryounglee@snu.ac.kr
Reviewed by Professor Travis Smith, Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations, tlsmith@snu.ac.kr