Dialogue with the Dean: Professor Doowon Lee

Doowon Lee (Business Administration, '83) is a professor at the School of Economics, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. Currently, he is also the Dean at Underwood International College, Yonsei University. He acquired his B.A. in business administration from Yonsei University in 1987 and his Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University in 1991.

Thank you for making the time today. Before we begin, please introduce yourself to our readers.

I joined Yonsei University in 1994 as a faculty member of the Economics Department, and this year marks my 30th year as a Yonsei professor. My first involvement with UIC was in 2007 when I assumed the role of Associate Dean and served for two and a half years during the early stages of the college. Since then, I have held various administrative positions within Yonsei, including Vice President for International Affairs and Dean of College of Commerce and Economics.

You have returned to UIC in almost 15 years. I think the readers would be curious about your motivations behind taking the position of dean, as well as your decision to return to UIC.

Initially, when the new President Yoon Dong-Sup offered me this position in late January, I hesitated. It has been 15 years since I left UIC, and I was aware of the significant growth and complexity the institution had undergone over those years. Taking on such a role seemed like an audacious idea. However, the special attachment to UIC that I developed during my two and a half years as Associate Dean motivated me to accept the position. I was also curious to see the progress UIC had made since my departure and assess the challenges it is currently facing. Ultimately, I wanted to contribute to shaping the future of the college.

To this day, UIC remains the top liberal arts college in Korea. So how do you envision liberal arts education and education at UIC both as a dean and one of the founding members of UIC?

I believe that the core value of a liberal arts education is to integrate humanities, arts, and various academic majors through an interdisciplinary curriculum. That’s why at UIC, we emphasize on our Common Curriculum (CC), which encompasses literature, history, and philosophy—these are the basic courses students have to take to understand human nature. On the foundation of CC, we offer 16 diversified professional majors. This kind of interdisciplinary study reflects the essence of what a leading liberal arts college aims to achieve.

While UIC already possesses the basic structure of interdisciplinary study, we still have progress to make. I recognize that we are still trailing behind many prestigious liberal colleges in the USA and Europe. Our primary challenges include a severe shortage of faculty members and excessively large class sizes in certain courses.

Alongside the shortage of faculty members, what do you perceive as the current challenges that UIC is facing right now, and how do you plan to address them?

My top priority is to increase the number of qualified faculty members. As of this semester, we have 43 full-time faculty members in UIC and we have nearly 3000 students. The studentto-faculty ratio is simply incomparable to any other college within Yonsei University. I’m actively drawing as much cooperation as possible from the university headquarters to increase the number of faculty members, and they also acknowledge this problem very well. So I am sure that they will give us full support but obviously, it’ll take some time. My goal is to recruit several new faculty members by the end of this year, bringing our total to over 50, and to continue this recruitment trajectory throughout my term until January 2026.

We also need more collaboration between faculties, between divisions, and between majors. For that purpose, I’m trying to arrange more interdepartmental meetings among faculties, and of course, more collaboration between faculty and students.

Now that we’re touching upon the topic of the internationality of UIC, I’m curious if there are any plans to enhance the inclusivity and diversity within UIC because we’re seeing a much more diverse student body compared to, say, 15 years ago.

Yes, I think we have many things to do in terms of inclusivity. When I look at the statistics, we have students from nearly 70 different countries, and non-Korean students comprise around 20 percent of the entire student body—it’s a pretty big portion of students. Only when you respect such diversity can you have an inclusive relationship with other groups of students. That’s one of the reasons I want to increase my interaction with the student body. Right now, I’m planning to have a UIC luncheon event at the Yonsei Presidential Residence. Of course, I cannot invite all 3000 students—I’m thinking about inviting around 200 to 250 students, including student body leaders. This is a very good opportunity for students to connect with each other and pose tough questions to the President. We’ve tentazstill being finalized, and we will announce it to the entire student body once everything is confirmed.

Recently UIC has created a graduate school, the Department of Innovation to be more precise, and we’re also excelling in research - we recently had master’s graduates and we’re publishing papers in international journals and conferences. Are there any plans to further enhance UIC’s distinctive interdisciplinary research capabilities?

I will ask my faculties, especially those on the tenure track, to dedicate more time and effort to the research. As you might know, they are already tied by a fairly big teaching burden. That’s why we need more faculty members. Only when we recruit more and reduce the heavy teaching burden of existing faculty members can they spend more time on their research pursuits. Also, I will try to make the decision-making process of hiring new faculties and promoting existing faculties more transparent. This will allow them to focus more on their research. When the promotion criteria are not transparent, they can feel very insecure about their future.

Another priority is the establishment of experimental laboratory facilities. Last year, in addition to the Department of Innovation, we set up the Department of Innovative Science and Technology, an extension of the ISE division that offers another master’s degree program. While I anticipate the enrollment of our first students next spring, [keep in mind that] this is a science and technology program—we need new faculties and we need adequate lab infrastructure as well. We will utilize the spaces in the International Campus in Songdo to set up new labs.

After the COVID era, both international society and Korean society are grappling with numerous challenging issues, including conflicts among genders and generations, rapid industrial changes driven by the introduction of AI, an aging population, declining birth rates, and more. So, what do you think UIC’s role as a college is, on a national scale and international scale?

UIC definitely has the advantage of tackling these problems powered by its international, interdisciplinary curriculum. With a diverse composition of students already experienced in how to work with others from different cultural backgrounds, we are in a very good position.

However, one area that I want to contribute to in this regard is to set up an alumni network. I was surprised to find that UIC currently doesn’t have an active alumni network—we do not know where our alumni are and we do not know their contact information. Establishing such a connection is a very important asset for both alumni and current students.

Moving on to more personal questions, how would you describe your leadership style?

I want to be a leader who actually sets a good example—someone who can encourage other people to do their job. A leader cannot do everything alone—I believe that a good leader is someone who can actually make things happen with the help of other people. To get that kind of support, I strive to be more reliable and trustworthy. I’m trying to give that kind of trust to people around me. To do so, I am also trying to give more authority to my staff, individual faculty members, major chairs, and division directors so that they can do their job without unnecessary interference. Once they make certain decisions, I make an effort to respect their judgment.

You joined Yonsei University as an undergraduate in 1983. What do you think is the most memorable moment from your undergraduate years?

At that time, Korean society was very dynamic—somewhat a little bit chaotic—which I enjoyed. Politically speaking, that was a time of democratization where I saw many big changes. At the same time, economically speaking, we were in an era of fairly rapid economic growth. We didn’t have to worry about our job market situation, and we had more opportunities. Personally, I made very good friends back then, and some of those friends are still with me these days and helping my job as the dean of UIC. More personally, I got married to my wife [who I met on campus], and we called ourselves a “CC” or Campus Couple. Those kinds of things.

We still use the term CC Looking back to those days, do you have any regrets from that time?

What can I say There are many, many of those small regrets. My GPA was not bad, but it could have been better. I didn’t do any club activities at the time, which is something I kind of regret now. I think I was too busy drinking and hanging out with my friends. But despite these small regrets, I’m pretty satisfied and happy with the campus life I had.

That brings us to our final question. You’ve mentioned that your term ends in January 2026. When that time arrives, how would you like UIC, and what legacy would you hope to leave behind as dean?

During my term, my focus will be on establishing a long-term vision for UIC. I plan to assess the current situation of UIC and compare it to prestigious liberal arts colleges in the States and benchmark their system. Subsequently, I will outline a long-term timeline to narrow that gap [between UIC and these institutions]. Of course, I understand that achieving this goal will extend beyond my term, but I would like to make steady but incremental progress towards it.

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Interviewed by Soonho Kwon (CLC & IID ’17)

Edited by Pho Vu (IID ’20.5)