With the inauguration of CNU's 17th president on February 1, 2012, we are interested in how he will lead CNU through today's global marker in which competition is getting tougher. Nobody doubts that we are in a very critical time and that it is time to gather wisdom from all members of CNU to find a way out of the current difficulties that CNU is facing. The key issue is the new president's leadership and ability to foster cooperation among all members of CNU.
    Last year, 2011: we still vividly remember the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology put five state-funded universities on the chopping block. The Ministry, with a strong resolution to reform domestic universities, is pushing troubled universities to make and conduct strict restructuring plans, in this context, CNU is not free from the ministry's action. As far as we know, in the middle of this year, the ministry will select the bottom 15% of the nation's state-run universities again based upon the criteria, such as the graduate employment rate, new student enrollment rate, availability of scholarships, levels of tuition fees, and the election system of university president, etc.. This is one of reasons we anticipate the new president's full leadership in maximizing CNU's potential.
    The new president of CNU has a lot of responsibilities when it comes to enhance the educational competitiveness of our university. Technologies and knowledge arc being changed day by day. We have co deliver our students ultra-modern technologies and knowledge used by business and society. We need to restructure the curriculum of our university to prepare our students to meet the require-mem of industrial companies. We need to develop our own traditions and specialties based on local culture. We need to drastically increase the rate of employment among our university graduates. We need to lower the professor student ratio. We also need co operate various programs to improve students' abilities in foreign languages, computer skills, and technology sectors. We need to increase the quality of the professors' research environment, let alone the students' learning environment.
    To cope with the era of globalization effectively, we need to create and maintain the long-term development of our university. We strongly urge the new CNU president and his administration to take certain steps before any tragic incident; such as CNU being included to the chopping block. But, one thing we need to remember is that CNU's new president and his administration are not alone enhancing CNU's competitiveness. All CNU members, students, faculty members, staff, and even alumni association should cooperate with each other to find the way out of the tough situation that CNU is facing.
    It is clear that we need to be changed. New CNU's president and university officers should do well to keep their eyes, ears, and minds open to better communicate with all CNU members. One of the reasons that CNU could not go forward during [he last few years is the lack of communication. Therefore, in the development of CNU, good communication is the key. if good communication is Practiced, good advice from various members will be heard. Otherwise, the future may prove itself to be rough.
    Let's stare with the resolution we made seeing the rising sun on the first day of 2012. We understand the situation that CNU is facing is not so promising. But, we don't want to be pessimistic about our future. We believe that fortune is still smiling upon our university, Chungnam National University. CNU, go for it and grab it. 

 

By  Jung Yang-soo , Associate Prefessor
Dept. of English Language and Literature

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