"Through the construction of enterprise resource planning (ERP)-based integrated information system, our university has prepared a foundation to manage university resources comprehensively and offer various information on the academic sector," she explained.
It is also pushing for extending a library and introducing a digital system on a gradual basis to digitalize all academic information and materials necessary for education and study as well as provide students with optimum climate and space for learning and research activities.
In an interview with the Korea IT Times, she said, "We plan to replace the university's information infrastructure with wireless LAN completely in order to offer information services beyond time and space."
She was reappointed in February 2006 for a fourth term. Lee, 63, is the first university president to be appointed for four consecutive terms. She firstly took the job in 1994.
Considering that the lecture method will change to a multimedia-centered one in the future, the university is classifying curriculums according to lecture methods_ multimedia- centered, discussion-centered and test & experiment-centered.
To enhance students' learning effects, the university is also planning to replace existing desks and chairs with human body engineering furniture and install heating & air conditioning systems in all lecture rooms on a gradual basis.
Along with this, the university plans to provide students with high-quality advanced virtual lectures through the construction of a virtual campus.
As a means of realizing the next-generation digital campus, the university will introduce and build Ipv6 (Internet protocol version 6), the next-generation version of the Ipv4, to improve the quality of Internet service to the maximum extent.
In preparation for the future educational environment carrying a new conception, the university is building a virtual campus, where students can engage in experimental education and research activities based on digital technology.
To this end, it will establish a virtual reality-supporting center and build basic infrastructure, securing its status as a digital university.
Through the introduction of an information system using state-of-the-art technology, the university will build an "up-to-date information silk road" website, which will make it possible for students and professors to exchange academic and cultural information in the realistic virtual space. "To become a top-class leadership university in the world, Sookmyung Women's University has mapped out the 'Sookmyung (SM) Vision 2020 strategy,' which calls for specialization of leadership, globalization and fusion," she said.
Under the leadership specialization strategy, the university will specialize education and study programs on leadership to produce 10 percent of the total Korean female leaders from the university in 2020. In line with this, it is operating and expanding various leadership-related institutes and programs, including the Sookmyung leadership development institute, the communication ability development center, the job career development institute, the Asia women research center, the Asia-Pacific female information communication center and LinguaExpress, an international language educational institute.
Commenting that the today's environmental change demands leaders playing not only at home but also on international stage, she said that Sookmyung will place the emphasis on building students' ability for globalization and jacking up the educational and study level of professors to the world's top-class level.
"As many industries of today call for leaders armed with fused knowledge, our university plans to actively foster bio technology (BT), culture technology (CT) and culture service (CS) through fusion with related academic fields," she added.
In case of Sookmyung University, BT means female health sector, CT refers to video, animation, broadcasting, publication, game and contents planning, and CS means food culture, exhibition performance, and tourism experience.
BT and CT refer to the next-generation growth engines, along with information technology (IT), nano technology (NT), space technology (ST) and environment technology (ET), whereas CS is one of the promising growth industries of the future. Meanwhile, President Lee vowed to remain fully committed to nurturing female leaders based on the university's reform projects, which she initiated herself. When she was first selected as the head of the school, the university was not an easy place. She inherited a debt of 780 million won in tax arrears when she first took the job.
But the most daunting task was not the financial burden but re-establishing trust and harmony among people at the university, which had some problems at the time.
Overcoming these early obstacles caused her to be dubbed a "CEO'' style leader. She has raised about 92.7 billion won in school development funds during her term in office.
Over the past 10 or more years she has also doubled the number of faculty members and students.
The number of students jumped from 7,917 in 1995 to 12,750 last year. The number of full-time faculty members has more than doubled to 523 from 211 over 10 years ago.
She earned a master's degree from the University of Kansas and a Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in the United States after graduating from Sookmyung in 1965, majoring in political science and international studies. Lee will serve until August 2008.
The following are excerpts from an interview with Lee Kyung-sook, president of Sookmyung Women's University.
Q: Sookmyung Women's University celebrates its centennial in May 2006. Do you have any special plans to commemorate the centennial
 A: Firstly, we will invite presidents of world-famous universities to hold the Global Leadership Forum on May 22 at the Samsung Convention Center in Seoul.
Along with this, we will also organize a leadership special lecture on globalization and higher education in the 21st century and the conference on international education programs and dual degree program.
On March 21, we already held a music concert for freshmen at Sejong Cultural Center in downtown Seoul on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the university's founding.
Q: Sookmyung University is pushing ahead with creating u- Campus. Would you introduce relevant projects
A: For the first time among Korean universities, Sookmyung built wire and wireless local area network (LAN) in 1998 and completed the mobile campus in 2002 for the first time in the world. Under the judgment that Sookmyung should possess the world's top level in some areas to become a global-level university, we have made intensive investment in IT sector.
As a result, Sookmyung University has secured its firm position as a university leading the IT service in the country.
Q: The first target of your university is to produce a number of female leaders who will play a key role in the international stage, not to mention at home. Would you comment on infrastructure Sookmyung built for fostering female leaders
Our university places focus on helping students bolster their ability for smooth communication, globalization, service activities for society and use of information. In particular, the Sookmyung leadership development institute offers students a variety of programs for acquiring creative knowledge and, future-oriented technology, as well as nurturing nature for serving society and keeping healthy mind and body. To actively foster female leaders, we are also operating many other leadership institutes and programs, including the communication ability development center, the job career development institute, the Asia women research center, and the Asia-Pacific female information communication center. |
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