Two of you lead two SNU bodies that ponder and implement “coexistence with others.”
Please introduce what roles the SNUSR serves first.

Chair Kim The SNUSR is an organization that nurtures talents who can benefit society through activities contributing to society by university based on expertise and facilitating global cooperation and sustainable advances. It has been striving to realize its core values—social responsibility, innovative expertise, sustainable cooperation, and warm inclusion—under the vision of "knowledge-based social contribution." This effort has been based on the collaboration among the SNU Faculty Council for Social Responsibility, the SNU Student Society for Social Responsibility, and the Social Contribution Committee in the SNU Alumni Association, which is key to these activities.

The SNUDC is known to be an organization that fosters the academic community seeking harmony
through improved institutions and culture. Along with the introduction to this organization,
please describe the SNU Diversity Report, which is published annually.

Chair Chun The SNUDC was launched as an advisory body to the president first among domestic universities in March 2016. To become a creative and healthy academic community, our university needs to boost mutual understanding and respect among members, as well as transition the operation and policies of the university to reflect this perspective. Thus, the SNUDC has been engaged in various tasks, including research and fact-finding to protect and promote diversity, hold related events, and propose school policies. The SNU Diversity Report is annually published, serving an essential role as basic material to integrating the viewpoint of diversity with university policies through its attention to the diversity of SNU members.

Under the common denominator of "life as coexistence,"
what would be the social values and roles of SNUSR?

Chair Chun The university is an arena for students to learn and grow; thus far, it has successfully fulfilled this duty. However, as the world shifts, we must keep pace with this change. Unless the university and its members strive to broaden their horizons, they may be entrapped with biases and "homophily." This is because overseas universities and companies are extending their training, preventing “unconscious bias.” There is no free path toward a society respecting human rights and diversity. Constant institutional reflection and improvement efforts are crucial, and above all, the university needs to listen to the “diverse voices” of members.

Chair Kim Universities cultivate and produce knowledge, while its raison d'être may be threatened unless the knowledge is returned to society. Thus, such platforms as SNUSR find high value in leading the application of practical knowledge to fields rather than staying in the ivory tower. This viewpoint lies in accepting the role of universities as an important space to understand the "otherness" of society rather than a means of personal success. This approach could be incorporated into the environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) companies seek in addition to sustainable development goals (SDGs) required in the global society. The role of SNUSR is closely intertwined with the futures that students themselves design.

According to the SNU Diversity Report, there is an increase in the number of international students, staff,
and researchers across the SNU. What would the universality we embrace for the harmony among these various members?

Chair Chun In a word, it should be “comprehending differences.” Because we have lived in a relatively homogeneous society, we may have lacked training in “mutual understanding and communication” with others different from ourselves. I have encountered research results showing that younger students have higher multicultural sensitivity, which is encouraging. Diversity includes “deep-level diversity,” such as invisible values, religion, and cultural identity, and “surface-level diversity,” such as visible gender, race, and age. Education and training are essential to understanding diversity and differences. This is why we should continue to examine what issues are present in our institutions, society, and culture and educate people about their possible solutions.

Chair Kim The term “demographic cliff” has already become widely recognized, and we live in an era with emerging concerns over various issues such as regional decay. As we experience an influx of migrant workers, it becomes necessary to communicate with foreign countries and actively support various disadvantaged groups. As previously described, the main targets of our activities are the underprivileged in South Korea and the low-income class in developing countries. One of our recent efforts is related to the keyword “interculturalism,” an extended notion of multiculturalism to address the refugee issue and the fair treatment of migrant workers in South Korea. There is one commonality. To nurture global leaders, it is crucial that the process of embracing and understanding diverse contexts, as well as the efforts for personal transformation through education and experience to become a sort of global citizen, be systematically reflected in university policies, and our role is to play a role as a task force.

Many issues in modern society threaten the "co-existence," including economic polarization.
Faced with these phenomena and devoted to resolving the issues, what efforts would
be necessary for individuals, schools, and society?

Chair Chun Hate speech abounds in online communities and other places such as YouTube. This situation has aroused great anger and inflicted severe damage on many people, and in some cases, certain victims committed suicide. Rather than accepting and neglecting this phenomenon due to its prevalence worldwide, we should actively seek solutions to improve it. What we can do at this point is to continue raising issues and mounting campaigns toward the “silent majority” and heighten awareness through various media that hate speech is a social crime, not an individual’s deviance.

Chair Kim Our society is highly polarized in terms of political inclinations and economic income levels. We must understand that we are “different” from one another to change the situations where we cannot choose a middle ground. For instance, in order not to be engulfed in one-sided political perspectives, it is crucial to make efforts to understand why the other side holds certain beliefs. However, currently, our society lacks a significant sense of coexistence in this regard. The issue is that if subsequent talents, graduating from schools and entering society, do not learn about each other's 'otherness,' the future of Korean society is likely to be marked by even more discord and conflict. To address this, there is a need for a process of shedding the outer layers of students who have lived for a long time in a deficit-survival competitive framework. Chair Chun has repeatedly emphasized that coexistence, understanding, empathy, happiness, and hope that can be shared with others are values that are essentially unattainable without learning and experience. Therefore, we believe that institutional enhancements are necessary to provide multi-layered opportunities for such valuable experiences.