Department plans to set
up memorial fund for sisters
By Laura Pelner
Campus
Editor
The department of biological sciences is in the
process of setting up a memorial fund to help future Purdue students
remember the South Korean sisters slain on campus three weeks ago.
David Asai, head of the department, said he and
his coworkers are still discussing the final plans and working with
the family, but he expects a fund should be set up shortly.
The fund would pay tribute to the Woo sisters —
Hyo Kyung, 29, of Chicago, and more specifically her sister, Yeunkyung,
31, a doctoral student in biology.
The sisters were murdered Aug. 2 in Yeunkyung's
Purdue Village apartment. A suspect, Zhan Yin, 27, a graduate student
in biology, was arrested for the murder on Aug. 7 while attempting to
enter Canada in Amherst, N.Y.
Though the fund isn't final yet, Marc Archambault,
director of alumni relations for the biological sciences department,
said it's certain a fund would be set up. He said an announcement would
be made through "official channels" soon.
Members of the department are working with University
officials and the family on the project, which Asai said is complex.
"I think we'll be able to get the family to agree
that the fund will be used for support for travel to scientific meetings
with grad students," said Asai.
He said a fund with that purpose would really reflect
Yeunkyung's wishes. "It's very much in keeping with Yeunkyung's spirit
and what she was really all about," Asai said. "The thing she really
wanted to do as a grad student, she wanted to be the best, the best
scientist at Purdue."
Asai said the best way to become exceptional is
to interact with people who are already accomplished — those who
attend national scientific meetings. He added, though, that these meetings
are expensive and sometimes hard for graduate students to get to.
The Achieve Excellence fund, as it would probably
be called, would be set up through the University to aid biological
science graduate students in their travel.
"The memorial fund will help meet a critical need
in the education of our graduate students," said Asai.
He said a committee from that department would
probably determine the winners each year.
"We'd have simple competition amongst students,"
he said. "They'd have to apply for it."
Each year, when a winner is chosen, the department
would take the opportunity to remember Yeunkyung and what she stood
for. "In this way, the memory of Yeunkyung Woo will be perpetuated among
future generations of graduate students," said Asai.
Most likely anyone could make donations to the
fund and all the proceeds would go directly toward student travel. "There's
no administrative costs associated with this," he explained.
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