Students at a prestigious university in Seoul called Thursday for a thorough investigation into allegations that one of its professors sexually harassed a female student for months.
The engineering professor at Korea University, identified only by his surname Lee, is accused of kissing and groping her on two occasions and asking her to send pictures of her making pouty lips since June, according to the student’s complaint filed with police.
The professor has denied the allegations, with Korea University accepting his resignation late last month. The school said it has decided not to take any disciplinary action, allowing him to leave with a clean record.
“Korea University has failed to show even the slightest effort to protect the human rights of the victim,” the university’s student council said in a statement. “The school authorities must take stern measures to prevent the professor from ever teaching again.”
The call came after top-ranked Seoul National University (SNU) decided earlier this week to open an independent probe into its own sexual harassment case involving a math professor.
SNU vowed to take stern action if the allegations that the professor groped not only his intern but his own students for an unidentified period were found to be true.
The SNU professor was arrested a day earlier over the charges, which he denies.
Korea University, however, said it has no plan to open a probe since, unlike SNU, it has no legal obligation to do so as a private institution.
“We understand the students’ concerns but it’s realistically impossible to meet their demands,” the university said.
The Korea University professor didn’t show up to a hearing by the school’s committee for gender equality over the case, so the school decided that letting him quit would be the best course of action, it said. (Yonhap)
