The Diversity Workshop held each December for diversity representatives appointed by SNU institutions is the Diversity Council’s largest annual event. The seventh workshop, which began on December 14 at 1:30 P.M. in the Kwanjeong Library’s Yang Doo Suk Hall, was attended by 90 representatives from 46 university institutions and various on- and off-campus partner organizations. This year saw a large increase in the number of partner organizations; on-campus bodies represented for the first time included the LnL Pilot Project Steering Committee and the SNU Institute for Sustainable Development, while off-campus ones included the Korean National Commission for UNESCO, the Korea Foundation for Women in Science, Engineering, and Technology (WISET), GM Korea, POSCO Engineering & Construction Co., and the Gwanak Foundation for Arts & Culture.
Diversity Council chair Changhoo Chun opened the workshop with a greeting and introductions of the participants, followed by an overview of the council’s major activities. Next, two teams of students who interned for the council during the Fall 2023 semester and won awards for their self-directed projects presented on their activities. In the presentation on its “Project to Create an SNU Free from Machine Translation,” the “Shapago” team explained how it translated cafeteria menus and student-targeted infographics and led a campaign to raise awareness about the language barriers faced by non-Korean-speaking members of the SNU community, who often have to rely on technology such as translation apps to navigate campus. The “Elemental Shati” team presented on the event it held in order to analyze factors behind differences among students in relation to health care and leisure, with a focus on the elements from the movie Elemental.
Another major purpose of the Diversity Workshop is to share information on other SNU institutions’ diversity promotion efforts over the previous year. The Diversity Councils requested this information from 46 institutions in November, and 26 bodies provided materials on their activities. These materials were included in the workshop booklet, and Diversity Council vice chair Youkyung Son gave a presentation summarizing the main points. As the College of Nursing and the Office of Siheung Campus were recognized by the council for their outstanding practices in 2023, representatives from both bodies also spoke at the workshop. The College of Nursing’s vice chair of academic affairs, Heeseung Choi, discussed the college’s introduction of a course titled “Understanding of a Multicultural Society and Nursing” and its support programs for its gradually increasing numbers of male students, while Kyuhong Kim, dean of the Office of Siheung Campus, presented on the planning of a variety events for residents of that campus’s housing facilities and a cultural regeneration space operated collaboratively by SNU and Siheung City. The workshop also included an introduction to the Diversity Council of the Department of Surgery, which was established within the College of Medicine in September 2023 and is SNU’s first department-level diversity council. Professor Hye Seong Ahn, a current member of that council, spoke on its composition and future plans.
Finally ending with a prize drawing, the 7th Diversity Workshop will be remembered as a valuable 90 minutes of sharing on diversity promotion efforts and expressing of gratitude for mutual cooperation throughout the year.
