In early Nov. 2024, rumors began to circulate in the DWU Everytime community that the university might become coeducational. On Nov. 7, the DWU student council requested a factual confirmation from the university’s headquarters to clarify the matter.

  In response, the university confirmed “the coeducation transition has been proposed, but has not yet been put on the official meeting agenda” and that the first overall discussion on coeducational transition will be held. DWU has been holding meetings since the end of Sept. to develop a mid-to-long-term development plan for 2040, during which some faculty members came up with the idea of coeducation as a way to strengthen the universityʼs competitiveness. This was a way to prepare for a situation where it would be difficult to recruit students due to the decline in the school-age population due to the declining birthrate in Korea.

  In response, Naran, the general student council of DWU, stated in a position paper, “Although the issue is being discussed, the university headquarters has not said a single word to the general student council, the student representative, until now.” “The university headquarters’ behavior of opening its mouth only when the general student council raises the allegations is an act of disrespect for the 8,000 Dongduk students,” and criticized, “The university headquarters is creating a sense of discomfort and remaining silent without taking an official position, without considering the anxiety that students will have when the allegations are raised.” “It is ʻwomenʼ who make up DWU, and we are completely opposed to the conversion of DWU to a coed school, which threatens the women who are the foundation of DWU,” the statement continued.

  On Nov. 11, DWU students began protesting on campus, led by Naran. The campus was covered with pickets, banners, and wreaths set up by students opposed to the coeducation. The pickets and wreaths carried ribbons with phrases such as Opposition to coeducational conversion secretly initiated without students’ consent, Democracy Dongduk is dead, and Are women easy? In addition, students took off their jackets in front of the school’s main building to hold a so-called Guajam Protest, and used lacquer spray to write phrases such as No to conversion to coeducation, Letʼs close the school with Myoung-ae (which means shut down the school with honor and mocking of DWU President Kim Myoung-ae), and Close but not open on the walls and floors inside and outside the school.

  The students raised issues not only about co-education but also about the undemocratic behavior of the university. Even before the truck fatality at DWU in June of last year, where a student was hit by a garbage collection truck, students had consistently raised the issue that the usual accident spot was dangerous, but the university ignored it. 

  On the other hand, the students showed radical protests by occupying campus buildings, including the main building, graffiti on lockers, damaging campus facilities, and vandalizing job fairs. In response, 241 professors and deans of  DWU issued an appeal, calling for an end to the “forced refusal of classes” and the “occupation and damage of facilities.”

  On Nov. 20, DWU held a student general assembly to vote for and against the proposals of coeducation and direct presidency. A quorum of 1,973 students attended the meeting, far exceeding the one-tenth of one percent of enrollment required for a meeting to be held. The vote on agenda item 1, coeducation, was defeated with 1,973 votes in favor, 1,971 against, and two abstentions, while the vote on agenda item 2, direct election of the president, was passed with 1,933 votes in favor, 0 against, and 1 abstention.

  The radical protesters at DWU agreed to lift the occupation of all buildings except the main building in a second meeting on Nov. 21, on the condition that the university declare a temporary halt to the coeducational conversion debate and come up with a democratic way to collect student opinions. The Naran also agreed to lift the blockade of classrooms except the main building and resume classes.

  After the protests were temporarily halted, DWU faced another challenge: how to pay for damage compensation and restoration. The school estimates the damage caused by the occupation at 2.4 billion KRW (2.4 million USD) and up to 5.4 billion KRW (5.4 million USD). Of this, the school has demanded 300 million KRW for the damage to the job fair facilities from the student government, but Naran has said that it cannot pay. In addition, the school is reportedly discussing ways to identify the perpetrators through the analysis of CCTV footage installed on campus.

  The university and students are also in disagreement over whether to end the occupation of the main building. In this regard, Naran  held a third meeting with the universityʼs headquarters, but the meeting was canceled after the differences were not resolved.

  Choi Hyun-a, president of Naran, said, “We have no plans to ask for help from outside forces for the restoration budget.” “We have not discussed the restoration because the problems on campus are not over yet, and even if we did, we would communicate with the school, not with the outside,” she said, adding that she would like to continue meeting with the school.

  As the situation escalated, there were many comments from the outside. The online men’s community criticized, ridiculed, and made hateful remarks against DWU students. Lee Woo-young, chairman of the Human Resources Development Service of Korea (HRDK), an agency under the Ministry of Employment and Labor, even wrote on his social media that he wanted to “filter out students from DWU from recruitment” and compared them to his daughter-in-law from a coeducational school, but deleted the post after it became controversial.

  On Blind, an anonymous community for employees, there have also been some posts about the incident, stating that they would not hire applicants from certain female universities. People who appear to be employees of large companies reportedly left comments such as, “The HR team has already started filtering (weeding out),” and “We were quietly weeding out until now, but now that we have a reason, we will do it openly.”

  In response to reports of gender discrimination in hiring, the Ministry of Employment and Labor launched a fact-finding investigation and announced that it would first check the facts and, if any violations of the law are found, deal with them under the law and principles. 

  The political sphere also weighed in. “Violence is unacceptable in any case, regardless of whether or not a school is converted to coeducation,” said Han Dong-hoon, a representative of the People Power Party. “It is unjustifiable to destroy the school’s facilities and trash the job fair, causing property damage to the school and depriving others of valuable opportunities. This is just common sense as a member of the community.”

  However, in response to Hanʼs remarks, Democratic Party of Korea Policy Chairman Jin Sung-joon criticized Han, saying, “Han is trying to exploit the DWU situation as political firewood.” “The cause of this situation is the undemocratic of the university authorities, who pushed for the coeducational conversion without the knowledge of the students, who are members of the university.” 

  Other women’s universities have joined the protest at DWU. Sookmyung Women’s University(SMWU), Duksung Women’s University, Kwangju Women’s University, and other women’s universities have issued statements expressing solidarity and support for DWU. One SMWU’s student said she was shocked by the controversy at DWU, feeling that the founding ideals of women’s universities were being undermined. “These discussions will have an impact on other women’s universities,” she said.

  In fact, after the controversy broke out at DWU, similar cases were found at other women’s universities, sparking controversy. At Sungshin Women’s University, for example, a recruitment guideline was released stating that foreign male students could be admitted to the Int’l Studies of Creative Convergence Education, which is open to foreigners, prompting students to raise their voices, saying, “We cannot entrust our future to a school headquarters that does not face the essence of a women’s university and its founding philosophy.” SMWU has also attempted to convert the graduate school into a coeducational school in the past, but the initiative failed due to strong opposition from students at the time.

  “I doubt that the alternative of switching to mixed-gender at a women’s university will be effective in the face of a declining school-age population,” said a SMWU student. “For women’s colleges to remain competitive in the face of a declining population, I think it is important for students attending women’s colleges to go out into the wider society and publicize the existence of women’s colleges,” she said. “In a society where sexism and various forms of misogyny still exist, I think women must have a safe space where they can speak out, even if it is just a little bit.” “The moment we have a society where women and men have equal rights, there will be no need for women’s universities, and women are waiting for a world where they do not need women’s universities,” she said, adding that women’s universities are necessary.