Last month, a disconcerting campaign was launched at one of the nation’s most prestigious universities here. A group of students at Seoul National University gathered and arranged a joint movement demanding that the school conduct thorough investigations of on-campus sexual harassment and better protect the victims, rather than the assaulters.

The campaign was sparked after the school allegedly showed a lukewarm attitude in dealing with a high-profile sexual harassment case involving renowned science professor Kang Seok-jin last year.

Kang, currently arrested, now faces charges of repeatedly sexually assaulting eight female students since 2008 and another woman during an event last July.

The case rattled local academic circles, and the university was slammed for its lackluster measures. Soon after the scandal hit, the school accepted Kang’s resignation, only to rescind it later upon protests from students that a resignation would exempt Kang from an internal investigation as he would no longer be among the university’s faculty.

“In sexual violence cases in universities, I don‘t think the attackers are properly punished. It is frustrating to see the organization actually defending the perpetrators,” said Kim Ha-kyung, a member of SNU’s feminist student society Dal, which participated in the movement.

The students argue that being subject to a sex crime on campus aggravates what is already a stressful experience due to education authorities’ nearly nonexistent protective measures.

“There are no tangible measures to protect the victims (of sex crimes), nor are there any means to force punishment on the perpetrators,” said Kim.

In incidents of on-campus sexual harassment, a student generally submits the case to the relevant school authorities -- a human rights center as at SNU -- and school authorities investigate the case to determine the validity of the accusation to be handed over to the police. In most cases, the case wraps up with the school penalizing the teacher unless the victim decides to go ahead and file a charge with the police separately.

What is further hindering the victims is the fear that Korea’s highly conservative male-dominant society will slap a scarlet letter on them for even being involved in such a case.

“I went drinking with a professor and we went to a karaoke bar. He sat beside me and told me to sing a song, while he casually put a hand on my thigh. From then on, he kept touching my thigh or my waist,” said an anonymous student victim. Despite her discomfort, she was afraid to tell anyone about it because she was “scared of attracting attention.”

“I didn’t care about strangers talking behind my back, but sometimes people with the best intentions can hurt me with kind words.”

It is rare for victims of on-campus sexual violence to press criminal charges, out of concern that the case will become publicized and he or she will become topic of public scrutiny.

Kang’s case was no exception, with the incident remaining under wraps until students at other schools began talking about it, and the students at SNU began to come forward only after the case was out in the open.

Some 65.3 percent of student victims in sex abuse cases did not take any action, according to a survey by the Presidential Committee on Young Generation. They cited that many universities mandate the victims to submit their names, phone numbers and details of the abuse without a clear guarantee of information protection.

Officials at the Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center said victims often tend to be timid, out of concern that people will accuse them of receiving grades or favors in exchange for sexual services.

The victim’s shame and guilt are actually allowing sexual predators from facing due justice, they say.

“Students, ironically, are afraid of the consequences that their teachers will face. Sometimes they think (the sexual harassment) is because ‘he likes me,’ which is a total misunderstanding. It is merely a sick habit,” said Bae Jeong-weon, a sex education councilor who heads the Center for Sexuality and Harmonious Life. “Students are young and innocent and could feel guilty about having someone fired. But it is purely because that person had a vulgar demeanor.”

Calls for more organized and stricter investigations against sexual harassment on campuses are rising as the number of reported sexual harassment cases increase, not just by professors but among the students.

Last week, Sogang University publicly apologized for an incident that occurred during its freshmen welcoming workshop, when a group of older students used sexually offensive terms in allocating rooms for first-year students. Some of the phrases stuck on the memos in the front doors of the rooms for female participants included “Touch my breasts even if they’re too small” and “I love breasts.”

The incident -- which touched off a near-nationwide furor -- was only the latest in the long line of recent on-campus sex-related cases that have stained the reputation of Korea’s most prestigious universities, hinting at lackluster sexual awareness of the presumed intellectuals dwelling in the ivory tower.

“Some young students think sex jokes makes them look open-minded and cool, but it is simply rude. It disregards the fact that each person has a different perception of sex depending on their upbringing, religious background and other factors,” Bae said.

She also pointed to the lack of proper sex education on teenagers. Although the government mandates 15 hours of sex education per year for all schools, a survey by professor Woo Nam-sik from Kukje Theological University and Seminary found that 60 percent of teenagers said they learned “nothing new” in the school sex education cases.

A recent survey by seven sex education institutions in Seoul found nearly half of middle school students in Seoul do not talk to anyone about sex.

Experts have raised concern that without any authority figure to point the teenagers in the right direction, young students’ perception of sex are often influenced by other mediums such as pornography.

Sexual predators have also been a common plague in other countries such as the U.S. and U.K., where even top-tier schools like Oxford and Cambridge make sexual consent workshops a compulsory part of their freshmen orientations.

A student at Northwestern University in the U.S. took legal action against the school after it failed to discipline a professor who sexually assaulted her.

After a myriad of university sex crime cases bombarded the country last year, the Education Ministry in December recommended to universities to revise their regulations so professors accused of a sex crime could not voluntarily quit their jobs. 

Allowing those who committed sex crimes to resign quintessentially offers them a near-free pass, since it spares them from further investigation conducted by the university. Unless the case is taken to court, which it rarely is, the perpetrator can evade justice and find another job.

But the move, which the ministry claimed was “an unprecedented measure,” remains strictly voluntary for now.

According to the ministry, the human rights standards including sex crimes do not factor into the statewide college and university evaluation, meaning the government cannot force schools to comply under the threat of cutting subsidies or student openings.

Each year, SNU provides online classes on prevention of sex-related crimes for faculty members. But according to Rep. Ahn Min-suk of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, only 20 percent of the professors take the lessons.

Moreover, recent data provided by Rep. Park Joo-sun of the NPAD revealed that the Education Ministry is keeping track of sex offenses at 78 universities, only 38 percent of 98 universities here.

The ministry vowed to pass a bill banning sex criminals from ever teaching again at college or universities within 2014. But the cited bill has not even been submitted to the National Assembly, raising questions on the authorities’ resolve to get to the bottom of the problem that has been ailing colleges and universities across the nation.

By Yoon Min-sik and Won Ho-jung (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)