Seeking to Unify Campus Community, Four Korean Student Groups Merge

The sound of beating drums and traditional songs delighted a packed Dunster dining hall on April 18 for the Korean Association's (KA) spring culture show, dubbed "The Korean Family." The evening also marked the inauguration of the merging of the four Korean student groups--Korean Students Association (KSA), Korean-Americans for Culture and Community (KACC), Yisei, a biannual magazine, and the Chun-sa fan dance troupe--into one organization: KA.

Harvard has not seen a unified Korean student organization since 1989, when Koreans of Harvard-Radcliffe (KOHR) split into KSA and KACC.

"It's about time," says Thomas K. Ryou '00, co-president of KA. "The Korean community is small here; it doesn't need to be any smaller."

The Dividing Line

In 1989, the KOHR fragmented when members diverged over the question of the group's focus. One faction wanted a greater emphasis on political activities, and less of a focus on social functions. The KACC was born and began organizing discussion groups on various issues affecting Koreans and Korean-Americans.

"There was a small group of Koreans [within KOHR] who were enthusiastic about being an active political voice," says Yunsun Nam '99, also co-president of the new Korean Association and current editor of Yisei.

The KACC also started a traditional drum troop. After the split, the remaining members of KOHR renamed themselves the Korean Students Association. The KSA coordinated a mentoring program in addition to organizing frequent social events.

After the split, the groups developed very different reputations on campus. Ryou says the perception was that KSA was too social, and KACC not social enough.

But former president of KSA, Jaehyuk Choi '98, says the group's image has been distorted by stereotypes and misperceptions. The purpose of KSA, he says, was never meant to be exclusively social.

"My highest objective was to foster a sense of community amongst the Korean students at Harvard. I had hoped that most Korean students could participate in KSA activities, share the Korean culture, and together get involved in any capacity on issues that affect Koreans politically," Choi says. "Some people use the term KSA to refer to a social clique, a Korean drinking group; it was never meant for that purpose," he says.

While Nam and Ryou both say the goals of KSA and KACC overlapped significantly, they acknowledge that the existence of two groups forced students to join one or the other, causing a divide in the community that, they say, ultimately was detrimental to the goals of both organizations.

"There was always that split; the two groups were mutually exclusive," Ryou said. "If you joined one, you couldn't join the other. You couldn't really become friends [with people in the other group]," he says.

A Desire for Change

Last year, students from the KSA and KCAA, as well as those on Yisei and in the Chun-sa dance troupe, began to question the split they had inherited, unconvinced of the need for multiple groups aimed at the same goal of fostering community.

"There had been a feeling among Korean organizations on campus for quite a while that there were too many separate Korean groups and that having so many organizations was detrimental to the Korean community at Harvard," says Juliette L. Lee '98, a founding member of KA and a former co-director of KACC. "We felt that it would be much more beneficial to the community if we could merge and therefore pool our resources," Lee says.

Leaders of all four groups participated in planning the merger. "The idea emerged through informal discussions among members of the groups last summer," says Sang S. Park '98, one founding member of KA and former board member of Yisei and KSA.

"All active board members met in weekly meetings throughout the fall to discuss, design and vote on every aspect of the new organization." Park says. "Everyone involved in the process had different visions of the role of Korean organizations at Harvard and the reasons for the merger," Park said.

Early in the spring, KA elected the new board. In addition to Nam and Ryou, Jason A. Hwang '00, Diana M. Kim '00 and Yoon-Ho Lee '00 were elected.

In order to accommodate the diversity of interests coming together under KA, the newly drafted constitution specifies that four of the five positions on the KA board are chairs of committees, each a parallel focus to one of the former groups: culture, education/politics, social events and Yisei.

"I think everyone pretty much was for the merger," Choi says. "The only objection would be that we weren't quite sure how the merger would synthesize the consituency, leadership and vision of the two separate groups," he says.

The merger became official on April 8 when Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III signed the KA constitution.

The Next Generation

While the current Korean student body seems to be reacting positively to the merger, Ryou says some of the leaders of KACC and KSA--who have graduated--were against the change. "The people who were involved in KSA and KACC were really committed to their respective groups; some devoted their whole college careers to their respective organization," Ryou says.

But Nam says she believes that ultimately the merger represents a fulfillment of the goals of both organizations. "The merger is beneficial for the Koreans here as well as the rest of the Harvard community. Something like the Spring Cultural Show would have been much more difficult to put on [because of a lack of resources] without the merger," Nam says.

Since the Cultural Show, KA has hosted several other events--most notably a discussion on the experiences of Koreans and Korean-Americans at Harvard--which have all had record turnouts. "Things have been working out better than we had thought," says Jason A. Hwang '00. "We're having more people involved."

Ryou says the change is particularly noticeable in the interactions of the Korean first-years with each other. "They're all friends--I can see who would fall under the [former] KSA or KACC categories, but they're all friends," Ryou said. "I'm not saying the formation of KA is solely responsible for this. But I do know there would have been some splits among the freshman without KA."

For all those involved in the formation of KA, the large turnouts at recent events seem to represent the end of a transitory period and offer reasons for optimism about the future. "As KA, we can better help Koreans and the Harvard community to learn more about the Korean culture," Nam says.

But Ryou says he believes that more than increasing the degree of cultural or political awareness on campus, the most important thing for KA to do, is what its predecessors could not fully achieve: a sense of community amongst the Korean student body. "What college comes down to is friendships," he says.