Overcharged Prosecution? 11 Dongduk Women’s University Students Face Legal Action Amid Controversy

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Prosecutors indicted 11 students from Dongduk Women’s University for staging collective actions against the university administration’s plan to convert the school to an engineering program. Current students and supporters called the move “over-prosecution” and “biased.”

On the 11th, the Dongduk student group Minju-eopsneun Minjudongduk held a rally near Hyehwa Station in Seoul’s Jongno district, shouting, “We condemn the prosecutors for leading student repression through over-prosecution.” Organizers estimated about 500 people attended, including Dongduk students, parents and allied groups.

The group said the university administration had withdrawn its complaint and submitted statements asking that students not be punished, yet prosecutors still indicted the 11 students without detention on charges including obstruction of business, refusal to vacate and property damage. The organization called the prosecutions both excessive and politically biased.

They added that while the Dongduk Foundation’s board—accused of embezzling university funds and running the school through nepotism—was effectively cleared, students have been put on trial. The group described the prosecutors’ double standard as an abuse of power under the guise of the law.

The mother of one indicted student, identified only as A, attended the rally. She said her daughter’s life has been completely upended since the engineering-conversion dispute began in November 2024 and through the subsequent legal process.

A’s mother said, “As a parent, it breaks my heart to confront such an unjust reality and to realize there is little I can do as my daughter faces a difficult road ahead.” She urged people to stand by the students until they can return to normal life.

Students and alumni from Duksung Women’s University, Sungshin Women’s University and Ewha Womans University also joined the protest. Sungshin student B criticized prosecutors, asking why the same officials who routinely cite “lack of manpower” or “insufficient evidence” to delay investigations into countless everyday acts of violence against women are so relentless, meticulous and effective when confronting students’ legitimate protests.

Dongduk students said they will oppose both the prosecutors’ indictments and the university administration’s engineering conversion. The group declared that even in a skewed system of justice, women’s voices cannot be silenced, and vowed that the fight to preserve the women’s college—and women’s resistance to an unjust society—will continue until the college fulfills its mission.

Freshman C, who enrolled this year, said her cohort now expects to graduate in 2030, beyond the planned 2029 conversion. “But the school I enrolled in is Dongduk Women’s University,” she said. “I want my diploma to say Dongduk Women’s University.”

On the 25th of last month, the Seoul Northern District Prosecutors’ Office indicted 11 Dongduk students without detention on charges including obstruction of business, joint refusal to vacate and property damage. Prosecutors said the charges relate to collective actions the students took from November to December 2024—occupying the main administration building, boycotting classes and spray-painting with lacquer—in opposition to the administration’s conversion plan.

The university administration, which had filed complaints against the students who led the protests, decided in May last year to withdraw its criminal complaints and submit statements asking that the students not be punished. However, prosecutors noted that offenses such as property damage and obstruction do not fall under crimes that can be dropped at the victim’s request.