On April 1, Jeju-NU President Huh Hyang-Jin, Student Council President Won Il-Gwon, student representatives, faculty representatives and accounting experts met to discuss and possibly settle the misuse of student support fees.

For the time being, Jeju-NU had decided to create a financial committee with two student-body representatives, in order for students to better understand how their tuition is being used by the school.

Still, the president has yet to give a clear statement on the entire issue.

The school-support fee was originally around two-thirds of all Jeju-NU tuition. The university would then use these fees for the sole purpose of improving university life for the students.

When a Jeju-NU student realized that his tuition remained the same even with the banning of ‘school-support fees’ from all national universities, he began his investigation as to how the supposed “school supporting” tuition was really spent in 2014.

What he realized was that student support fees also compensated for all of Jeju-NU President’s business operating expenses.

According to an online newspaper Newstapa, in 2014, the President’s business operating expenses totaled at 43 million won. Out of the 43 million won, 30 million won was paid by credit and 13 million won was paid by cash. A total of 27 million of his expenses was spent on food costs alone with no way to find out who and how many people dined with the president.

As for the expenses paid in cash, a total of 6,650,000 won was used for “cash gifts”. (Cash gifts in Korea are given to hosts of numerous events to celebrate special occasions for friends, family members, and co-workers.) Another 2,250,000 won was used for the purchasing of “reference books” for the university.

It is also illegal for government officials to use business operating expenses on non-work days such as weekends. Yet, receipts prove that the university president used the school-support fees to pay for his various expenses at least nine times on non-working days

When asked about the unaccountability of school cash spent under his name, President Huh Hyang-Jin replied, “As long as it did not give away any personal information, I have made sure to be transparent in all of my business operating expenses. I will continue to be accountable for my business expenses by updating the school’s homepage and notice board.”

Student Council President Won Il-Gwon then concluded the discussion by insisting that the President formally addresses the student body and to explain for his “violation of business operating expenses.”

The President then answered, “I will compose an explanation through my chief secretary.”