Yearly Plan

March 12, 2020

Dear Fellow UNIST Professors,

 

While we are amid the historical outbreak of COVID-19, it is so humble that none on earth might have imagined this magnitude of epidemic in early 2020. Now, World Health Organization (WHO) has reluctantly labelled it as pandemic. Although it is not an easy time for us to respect ‘social distancing’ between people with masks on our faces, we have no choice but accept it as a new norm in society. Hopefully, we can resume the normalcy of our lives sooner rather than later.

Despite a lingering uncertainty beyond our control, that does not hinder us from planning and working for the next two years in UNIST. As mentioned in the inauguration speech last October, the 2nd University Faculty Association (UFA) would endeavor to secure sound academic environment for UNIST professors to focus on the core activities of “Education and Research” Specifically, we plan to harbor the environment in UNIST for: well-beings and collective intelligence.

More specifically, UFA will enhance the ‘food quality’ on campus as the first and foremost item of well-beings. Seemingly, this may be so mundane that none might like to talk about it in a regular basis. But, the outcry for decent quality foods on campus has not been addressed appropriately. Recently, we have already agreed with President Lee to form a special task force (TF) to address the issue for ‘Quality Food’ on campus, where all the UNIST stakeholders (including professors, students, staff, school management, and campus administrators) will work together to find a good solution in a multi-faceted way. Once we pave a way for quality food through this TF activity successfully, a similar approach is likely to be valid for quality living conditions, which may contribute to higher retention rate eventually.

Also, UFA plans to have a social gathering near the end of each semester, where all of us mingle with each other over light snacks and beverage. Tentatively, we have scheduled this social event on last Thursday in May and November respectively (i.e. May 28 & November 26). This will help us get closer to each other, sharing the collective intelligence on various topics that may not be easily raised. Certainly, the UFA website bulletin board will be also a venue for frequent communications among ourselves. More user-friendly features will be available at https://prof.unist.ac.kr.

Each cabinet member will serve as leader or deputy leader in the sub-committees of i) General/Planning, ii) Personnel/School, iii) Public Relations/Recording, iv) Finance/Accounting, and v) Welfare. Also, to cope with the recent 4-instituion strategic plans initiated by Ministry of Science and Information Technology (MSIT), vice-president Professor Kim, Yong Hwan will serve as ad-hoc ambassador. While UFA will closely monitor the on-going progress of these plans, Professor Kim will spearhead any issues, in coalition with other institutions, on our behalf.

Should there be any suggestions or comments, please feel free to contact me or the elected and appointed UFA representative (s)s in your division without hesitation, as listed below.

  • Yongkyoon In (President), Yong Hwan Kim (Vice-president), Jaeup Kim (Trustee director)*,
  • Tae-Hyuk Kwon, Chun Sang Yoo, Keunsuk Chung, Youngshin Kwak, Jibum Chung, Hajin Kim,
  • Chaenyung Cha, Inkyoung Lee, EunMi Choi, Bradley Tatar**, Changduk Yang**, Eunhee Kim**
    *Appointed by President
    **Appointed by the elected representatives

May God bless you, and your works in education and research!

 

Sincerely,

Yongkyoon In
2nd President of UFA