In view of the upcoming integration of Changwon, Masan, and Jinhae into one megacity this July, CWNU sent a questionnaire to 160 prospective candidates for mayor and city council members for the forthcoming June 2nd local elections. The purpose of the survey was to identify which candidates pledged to give administrative financial support to CWNU. A press conference by five university organizations (alumni association, union officials, university union, student union, faculty union, etc.) was held in the headquarters of CWNU. The group declared unanimously that they would support the candidates for mayor and city council members who advocate the development of CWNU.

They asked whether the candidates were in favor of the enactment of ordinances that would allocate 10 billion won to 40 billion won a year to CWNU for the establishment of industrial and medical colleges, department of oriental medicine, and integrated Changwon city’s development institute in the university. The group will announce which candidates to endorse on the 29th day after receiving the replies to the questionnaires that were given to the 160 candidates.

Faculty council’s chairperson Jung Cha-Geun explained that ‘endorsement’ means getting the vote from university members. He added that “The local citizens want Changwon National University to survive on its own rather than be merged with other universities, thus the need to wholeheartedly support CWNU’s own survival as a local national university, just like the cities of Incheon and Ulsan where there are ordinances that support local national universities.” However, there were controversies regarding CWNU’s survey, questioning its ethics and saying that it seems to put pressure on the candidates. This kind of survey may also raise some equity issues with private universities as regard to administration

Choi Duck-yoon  duckyoon1004@changwon.ac.kr

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