The Olin School of Business has more than 20 Korean students enrolled in its graduate and undergraduate programs. Their presence holds special meaning because they are the benefactors of a bond that was formed nearly 50 years ago.
Korean business school students, as well as some of their compatriots at other WUSTL schools, recently attended a reception to hear firsthand accounts of the work the business school did from 1958-1965 to improve business education in Korea.
Robert L. Virgil, Ph.D., former dean of the Olin School and former executive vice chancellor for University relations, was a graduate student when the program started. During a scholarship dinner last year, he was talking with M.B.A. student Dong Ho (Donny) Seo when Virgil realized the current crop of Korean students wasn’t aware of WUSTL’s connection to that country.
Virgil wanted to make sure the history was known.
“Considering that many of Korea’s business leaders today were affected by what came to be known as the ‘Korean Project,’ it would be a shame for that history to be forgotten,” Virgil said. “So I decided that current students and their families should hear about it.”
He initiated the organization of the event and was helped by current Dean Mahendra Gupta, Ph.D., the Geraldine J. and Robert L. Virgil Professor in Accounting and Management; assistant to the dean Paige Isom; and Seo.
During the reception, Virgil explained that in 1953, after the Korean War, the U.S. government decided it would provide technical and educational aid to Korea. A government agency called the International Cooperation Administration contracted with WUSTL to cooperate with two universities in Seoul to develop programs in business administration.
There were four objectives, Virgil said:
• Assist Yonsei University and Korea University in developing curricula in business administration;
• Improve teaching methods in the two schools — discouraging too much lecture and encouraging discussion;
• Strengthen the library and audio-visual facilities in the two schools; and
• Introduce a summer management-development program for Korean executives.
“We entered into a three-year contract with Yonsei University and Korea University,” Virgil said. “The first faculty went to Korea in April 1958.
“In the summer of 1958, faculty from Washington University introduced the first management-development program in Korea. In 1960, the contract was renewed, which extended the program into the mid-’60s.”
Four people who were extensively involved in the Korean Project spoke at the reception.
• John Walsh, emeritus professor of management, recounted his years there helping factory owners become more efficient.
• Merle Welshans, emeritus professor of finance and former vice president of finance for what is now Ameren, helped Korean academics work with businessmen to develop case studies for students that would be relevant to Korea’s economy.
• Powell Niland, emeritus professor of management, also created many case studies in both Korean and English, and he helped develop the skills Korean academics needed in business research.
• Also speaking was Jean Emory, wife of the late William Emory, whose contributions to the Olin School included being the first director of the E.M.B.A. program. They and their daughter, Patty, spent 18 months in Korea while William Emory assisted with the program.
Emory told about daily life in Seoul, including tales of sending her daughter to school and the trials of finding the right ingredients for cooking.
Over the course of the contract, nine WUSTL faculty members were in Korea for approximately 18 months at a time. Another 10 went back and forth in the summers to teach executive-management programs.
Twenty-four Korean faculty members came to WUSTL to observe classes, then returned to Korea and applied their newfound knowledge at Yonsei and Korea universities. Four of those people ended up earning M.B.A.s and four others earned doctorates.
Two of those with doctorates eventually became presidents of their respective universities: Ja Song served as president of Yonsei University, and Joon Bum Lee became president of Korea University.
In reflecting on the educational exchange, Welshans said, “It’s not an exaggeration to say that the Korean Project made a major contribution to the tremendous progress the Korean economy.”