| Category: Clips/KoreaTimes |
In a meeting held at the JW Marriott Hotel in Seoul, the board of 15 members unanimously approved not to offer a contract extension to Laughlin, meaning his tenure will end on July 14 this year.
The decision means that the experiment of letting a Nobel laureate reform KAIST proved to be a failure as Laughlin was urged to leave the university against his will.
The 53-year-old who formerly worked at Stanford University in the United States, took over KAIST in July 2004 on a two-year contract, extendable by two more years.
After taking the reins of arguably the country¡¯s most prestigious science-technology university, Laughlin revealed a set of reformist measures, which faced criticism.
In particular, his idea of adding pre-law and pre-medical programs to the curriculum came under fire from those who believed this would not serve the interests of KAIST, a university which focuses on high level research.
Recently, antipathy for Laughlin is widespread among KAIST faculty members as amply demonstrated by a flurry of anti-Laughlin activities.
More than 89 percent of KAIST professors were opposed to the his reappointment, according to the latest in-house survey, partaken by 278 of its 409 professors.
In addition, 325 professors, including three foreign ones, also took part in a signature-gathering campaign geared at preventing Laughlin from serving two more years here.
Earlier this week, a 20 KAIST deans stepped down from their current posts after Laughlin refused to respond to their requests that he should leave KAIST this summer.