The First 'Professor Union' in Korea National Sport University History... "We Will Achieve Protection of Academic Rights and Democratization of Decision-Making"

The National Professors' Labor Union of National and Public Universities (Gukgyojo) branch has been established at Korea National Sport University. The Gukgyojo branch at Korea National Sport University is the first professors' union ever established in the history of the university.

The organizing committee for the establishment of the Gukgyojo branch at Korea National Sport University held the official launch ceremony at 4 p.m. on the 22nd in the Faculty Council Room on the 2nd floor of the Sports Science Building. Yoon Chang-seon, a professor in the Department of Physical Education at Korea National Sport University and the branch chairperson, stated, "We will strive to protect professors' academic rights and improve their welfare, safeguard students' human rights, and democratize decision-making within the university community," adding, "We will participate in the democratization of national universities and the normalization of higher education."

The committee was formed after more than one-third of the full-time faculty members at Korea National Sport University submitted participation applications supporting the establishment of the Gukgyojo branch. Following the founding members' event on the 7th, a faculty meeting was held where the following were unanimously approved: △ improvements regarding faculty personnel matters △ correction of administrative errors related to the performance-based annual salary system and revision of related regulations △ upgrading the Faculty Council, currently an advisory social organization, to a deliberative body, and amending the academic regulations to grant the chairperson of the Faculty Council, in addition to the president, the authority to convene and preside over faculty meetings. The official document was submitted to the university president on the 11th.

In 2018, the Constitutional Court ruled the current 'Teachers' Union Act,' which had prevented university professors from forming unions, unconstitutional. Subsequently, on October 25, 2019, Gukgyojo was founded under the banner of securing the public nature of universities, realizing university autonomy and academic freedom, guaranteeing academic rights and professors' status, and advancing higher education.