Sogang University, Korea - Part III!
I can’t get our Jesuit “miracle” university in Korea out of my mind. Fr. John Daly who had four two-year terms as President of the University was a member of our Jesuit Community at Camillus this past year.
He passed away during Christmas week.
As usual his belongings became available to the rest of the Community. I acquired a book written in English and Korean by a former Korean woman student. It is a collection of interesting and humorous anecdotes submitted by past and present faculty members and students. It gives one a “taste” for the history of the University as well as the respect and appreciation the Koreans had and have for what those wonderful American Jesuits did for them.
Here’s one incident she reported. Sogang University was the only university that had an “open library” allowing free access and withdrawal of books. This caused a problem. The librarian found damaged books, pages torn out, etc. Fr. Killoren, the first President, was pressured by the faculty to end the “open library” policy. He refused to do that. Instead, he displayed the damaged books for viewing by the students. This ended the problem.
The book also made mention of a period of politican unrest and student protests at the various universities. The government warned the presidents of each to control the students or expect a shutdown. I was a witness of this. When I was assigned to our fund raising office in Minneapolis, I was invited to Sogang by Fr. Daly. One morning a large group of police with rfles and wearing gas masks were stationed outside our main gate. In time they entered the gates, and every student
and I headed for the buildings. One Korean student handed me some cotton to cover my nose and mouth in the event they would throw smoke or gas bombs at us. Thank God that didn't happen. By noon the troops were gone.
We Jesuits have interesting lives, don't we??
If you are interested, the Korean website is: sogang.ackr/English
