We can feel the cynical gaze of university students in a survey conducted during the "Yonsei University Students' Complaints against Clean Workers" incident in July or the recent "Consumer Cooperative Labor Union Demonstration" at Pusan National University(PNU) Busan Campus. Channel PNU conducted a "Survey on University Students' Perception of Demonstrations on Campus" from November 10th to 15th. 122 PNU students responded to the survey consisting of a total of five response items

As a result of the survey, the multiple-choice items asking about the perception of protests in campus were positive perception (30.3%), neutral perception (34.4%), and negative perception (35.3%). Although negative perceptions were the most common, there was no significant difference between the proportion of positive and negative perceptions. However, more than half (53%, 65 people) expressed negative perceptions of the demonstration in response to selective subjective question asking the cause of recognition. Most of the students who responded to "neutral" also responded with "no interest" in the subjective question, showing a virtually negative perception.

The choice of "because it is noisy," which means negatively recognizing demonstrations on campus, took up the overall weight. It is an opinion that noise and inconvenience caused by demonstration violate students' right to learn. Student A in the class of 2021 who participated in the survey said, "We cannot look positively at demonstration that are not interested and only cause noise."

This phenomenon is in stark contrast to the active solidarity of many students at the 2005 rally for the succession of employment sanitary worker and security at our university. At that time, it was difficult to find public opposition even though they used small gongs and loudspeakers and sang folk songs loudly. The student council held a large-scale signature campaign, and many students participated in the rally.

The negative perception of the demonstration by university students is a national phenomenon. Yonsei University also expressed its negative attitude toward the protests of cleaning workers demanding an hourly wage increase of 400 won in May. Some students sued workers for violating their right to study, which was the big talk of netizens. Compared to the past, when labor civic groups and others made various claims, the number of college students who serve as supporters is now a small number.

■ A Sense of Rejection Resulting from “Lack of Understanding”

Experts say that the main cause of this change is a decrease in community awareness due to university students' indifference to social problems and individualism. Professor Joo Yoon-Jung (Dept of. Sociology) said, "In a competitive society, it is natural that students value exams and employment the most, but now there is a great lack of community spirit.” Because of the decline in interest in our university, the turnout of the student council, which is the center of the university community, has steadily decreased and last year, our university failed to form a student council for the first time in 54 years.

Prof. Joo raised the issue of the reality that students today do not study and think deeply about the essential rights of workers or citizens who protest. She said, "In this reality, it is natural in a way to simply regard complex social issues and claim infringement on the right to study due to a lack of understanding of protests."

Yang So-young (Graduate School, Dept. of Sociology, 16), a student president who has expressed various school issues analyzed, “In the case of university students, they expect themselves to have a white-collar job, so they regard the story of the workers or the weak who participate in the protest as far away from them and cannot sympathize with them.” In the survey's subjective category, the answer was, "I don't get interested because it's not like my business." Prof. Joo also pointed out that "In reality, most university students should recognize that they will live as workers."

■ "Most of Them Live as Laborers"

However, there still exist the voices to support campus protests in our universities. As a recent example, handwritten posters were posted throughout the campus to support the sociology department. Student B, class of 2024, who responded positively to the perception of protests, said, “Labor protests are to guarantee the natural rights stipulated in the three labor volumes, so students should also join forces."

Prof. Joo said, “Even if there were complaints, unlike other universities, our universities showed some capabilities in that no hate handwritten posters or incidents occurred. Students who are interested in demonstrations should not regard the noise of demonstrations negatively, but should identify fundamental problems from a broad perspective and have a community spirit that thinks from the perspective of others.”

Reporter Yoon Da-Gyo

Translated by Lim Chae-Kyung