The day of a Ewha student’s graduation begins by dropping by the hair salon, putting on luxurious clothes, and getting her make up done at the beauty shop. She takes pictures with her parents, siblings and relatives around campus. After all this, she leaves the campus without attending the graduation ceremony.
Until the 1980s, Ewha students were reserved in their hair styles, neat in their clothing and careful in their facial touches. Kim You-phil (’80, Social Studies) says, “Unlike nowadays, students in the 1980s did not do special put on in their faces.”
In addition, students before could not imagine not attending the graduation ceremony. Kim adds, “Students’ attendance at the graduation ceremony was almost 100 percent.” Choi Young-hyun (’80, Social Studies) has a daughter who graduated from Ewha two years ago. Choi said she was shocked to see so few undergraduate students attending the ceremony. “In my graduation day, students attentively listened to what the President of Ewha says while being decently dressed upon graduation gown and bachelor’s hat but when I went to my daughter’s graduation ceremony, most of the students filling up the auditorium were students who received master’s and doctoral degree not undergraduate students,” Choi says.
Current students often do not usually take pictures with professors as was the case in the past when students boasted of their intimate relationship with teachers by taking several snap shots with professors. Kim comments, “When I graduated, students had a dinner party in which we invited professors and took pictures with them wearing a hanbok, the traditional Korean clothes, and bowed to them for the appreciation of their teachings on us.”
Choi laments, “After students become old and look at the pictures taken on the graduation day, the only thing that might be left is their enjoyment with other students laughing and gabbing. It is regrettable to have no remains on the pictures which reveals a pure affection between students and teachers.”
By Yoo Jung-eun