It’s the season of beginnings. The entrance ceremony has been held and a new semester begun. Campus has come to life again, thanks to our lively students. It’s not unusual to see groups of chattering freshmen here and there around campus at this time of year. All of them seem to enjoy adapting themselves to their new university life. Although it’s been almost thirty years since I was a student, the passage of one generation, I can still feel the flutter of anticipation I had when I entered the university as freshman.

In this new spring season there are always plenty of banners and hand-written posters about orientation (OT) and membership training (MT) all over campus. In the old days when I had just entered the university, orientation was a simple and formal one-day-event in the gymnasium, with dry greetings from the university officials. However, these days orientation appears to have become membership training as well as a welcoming party for the freshmen. Senior students participate in the event and it has turned into an overnight trip. Moreover, the site for the training has changed-now they go to a luxury resort hotel somewhere in the suburbs. The membership training trips in my undergraduate days were usually very humble. We rented a very shabby house and prepared all meals by ourselves to save money. On one hand, I envy the more luxurious lodging and meals of today’s trainings, but it°Øs also a bit of a pity because it°Øs not as romantic as before. Orientation or membership training trips are very important not only for the school but also for the individual students. Students and faculty members can get to know each other through such events.

In addition, these events provide the chance for new students to establish a more harmonious social life with their group members. We have a very special culture and tradition of emphasizing the unity of the group. Every member should participate in their group’s activities. Anyone who doesn’t join the gathering is called an “outsider.” Unity and membership is very important in our society. Then should it be emphasized unconditionally? And is it desirable all the time? Think about the world of politics in the National Assembly. They always form a group, classify themselves as mainstream (or anti-mainstream) and act as a group based on well-trained membership. Does this kind of unity and membership always produce desirable actions? Unity is emphasized in our society, but it does not lead to desirable action all the time. Then, how about at the university? In my university days, we were also emphasizing the importance of unity. We were pressed to attend all the department events like the MTs or the school festivals. Sometimes we were forced to join in a demonstration regardless of our personal political opinion. We even had to refuse to take the exams to show our unity for the protest, and the one who ‘refused’ to boycott the exams got an F grade while the others all passed! No one could understand this situation but we realized that diversity or individuality was not a virtue at that time.

Thirty years have passed since then, and unity is still seen as a better virtue than diversity. I read an article that some universities levy a charge to the students who don’t attend department events. Students are still being forced to respect the code of unity whatever the situation is. Probably the student council wanted to raise the rate of student participation. However, forceful measures are neither reasonable nor democratic. More important than enforced unification is voluntary participation, which comes from the understanding, consideration and acceptance of diversity. Understanding the other’s problem, caring about another’s situation, and accepting the differences will make real unity. Think of stained glass. How colorful and beautiful it is! It is formed by plenty of pieces of glass with different colors in different sizes. Real unity comes from accepting differences based on understanding, care and tolerance. These are subtle powers to make stronger and long-lasting membership and unity in our society. I hope this new generation of students will create new ways to harmonize through OTs and MTs that are smarter and more broad-minded than my old days.

Chang-Soon Rha  School of Architecture

dasein@kookmin.ac.kr