KyungHee University

Seoul

  Dear Greg,
                 I just saw your website, and I looked to see if KyungHee in Seoul was on there.  I saw the one notation about them keeping documents, but I have to tell you that that's not all that's wrong with that place.  I was aware of different people having that document problem since I just finished a contract (thank goodness!) with KyungHee University in Seoul this February.  They are some of the most petty, lecherous, small-minded people with whom I've ever had the displeasure of working!  Lies and more lies abounded, and then the mass exodus seems to happen every contract year-end.  When I signed on to begin a contract in Feb., 1999, there were about 10 other people also signing on.  They usually employ 18 or 19 teachers.  We signed contracts for severance pay, then in our monthly meeting in March we were told that they'd made a mistake--we didn't get severance.  They told us that we didn't have a choice; we had to re-sign contracts, ! and most of us finally did.  It was too late to re-find a decent job at that time, anyway, and come to find out, they had the graduate assistant signing our names to documents we never even saw.  They even take the liberty of making tojongs we aren't supposed to know about. Here's another little tidbit:  whenever you receive a notice that there's been a mistake on your check (usually in the form of too much one time then it's taken away again, not all at once, later), that's usually the payroll department playing juggle the books.  The other Korean professors usually wind up with that money in hidden ways as extra compensation for a whole variety of services.  We all should realize that it's not really true that the Korean professors take home so much less money than we do:  they take home more!   The Korean professor who was our coordinator at KyungHee was new to the job.  He said he'd just! taken it over the previous September.  He had a pleasant demeanor at first, but after my name was on the contract, it was like "Out of sight, out of mind!"  He was just like a used car salesman.  Well, his relationship deteriorated with almost everyone on staff in the year that I was there, until he also had left the position as coordinator even before I left this Feb.  He lost all credibility and respect from the teachers due to many deceits and unprofessional behavior on his part; for example, the one person with whom his relationship remained the same was with one teacher who liked to wear very short, very revealing clothing.  She'd diss him big time behind his back for the benefit of the other teachers; then she'd just stroke his ego bigtime whenever she got the chance.  He behaved like a typical foolish man for a short skirt.  Talk about a poor excuse for a professional workplace environment!  He gave her all kinds of p! erks and attention and passed over older, more experienced teachers.  While I was playing along with his game, teaching extra classes, not asking questions, and never asking for favors, I was regarded as okay and relied upon.  When I began to call in his promises and ask for understanding in return in some class teaching related matters, I suddenly became undesirable as a teacher.  I guess all that started to happen about the time that I announced in July (halfway through my contract) that I was going to return to the US.  Oh well, no matter.  I left Korea Univ. after two years to go to KyungHee, and I taught at universities in the states for 10 years before I went over there (I'm teaching at a private university now, too).  So he doesn't shake my confidence and I know it's not me--there were too many other people who were disgruntled, too, in varying degrees, and usually they had their own slant on things, too.  As a grand finale, we all h! ad a big tempest in a teapot argument about severance vs. pension, and when the powers that be (Korean Board of Ed) backed up the university's claim that pension was the in thing, we were promised 2 times what we'd paid in plus interest.  That would have just about equaled severance; what a nice thing to promise!  Of course it didn't come through--I didn't even get back all that I'd paid in, but I was already back in the states, as I'm sure others were, too, and that was that.  They're lying and deceitful at that school, and they didn't even provide housing (and certainly not any stipend for rent!) for almost everyone.  There were 7 or 8 one room apartments for the chosen few.  We were all put in a room in the basement where many of us developed health problems from the dampness (and it even flooded!), and we were even caught in the middle of an office politics war and forced to stop using the copier in preparation for classes.  So, as you ! can see, KyungHee University in Seoul is definitely not at the top of the list of schools at which I would ever want to teach again.  Thanks a lot for the listening ear.    
                                              11/7/00 Priscilla Chansler