[제54대 총학생회, 제29대 총여학생회 정책토론회] 영어 기사

The pledges of the General Student Council candidates:

	STANDBY	Palette
Safety Rights	ž   Yonsei Emergency Notification System ž   Campus facility check	ž   Safety Guideline ž   Require the data of safety inspection ž   Install Unmanned Delivery Depository
Shuttle Bus	ž   Increase the number of Shuttle bus ž   Operate a Student Council Night bus	ž   Sell shuttle bus tickets in advance (Sa-I-da Bus)
YIC	ž   Improve RC Education through surveys ž   Refine curfew policy of YIC ž   Install YIC Bureau	ž   Abolish limiting participations of other house students ž   Improve Holistic Education subjects
Communication with the student body	ž   Fast response to students under the name of 365 STANDBY ž   Increase acknowledgment of autonomous expense and the ways to pay	ž   Creation of Kakaotalk Plus Friend ID ž   Public hearing for student communication ž   Install Palette communication booth
Classes and education	ž   Ease Restrictions on Course Retake System ž   Improve the Mileage Course Registration System ž   Guarantee students’ rights to view grade exam papers
	ž   Institutional Improvement on Summer and Winter Session ž   Increase the number of Cyber Lectures ž   Offer credit for MOOC courses	ž   Improvement of Class Current Scheduling System ž   Guarantee Equity in Foreign Language Classes ž   Change Curriculum encyclopedia for each major

The debates regarding the Yonsei General Student Council election were held at Songdo and Sinchon campus, on Nov. 14 and Nov. 16, respectably. The two candidates of the General Student Council, STANDBY and Palette, were present to answer questions regarding their pledges and specific plans for the upcoming days.

Due to the current absence of The General Student Union, students’ interests and participation have significantly decreased during the past year. Meanwhile, the absence has been replaced by an ‘emergency committee’ that served as the General Student Council of Yonsei, and students have been experiencing difficulties without a student representative to depend on. As a consequence, the student union fee, now paid on an autonomous basis, marked a record-low payment rate.

While both candidates acknowledged the fact that the vacancy of a General Student Council led to low interest and participation rate among students, they promised that their numerous pledges and specific objectives will successfully draw back students’ interests. STANDBY stated that the lowered participation and payment rate were partly due to the limited communication and unreleased budget usage. Thereby, STANDBY asserted that normalizing the student council tasks and disclosing budget inspection results will greatly enhance the participation and consequently increase payment rate.

Meanwhile, Palette explained that the lower payment rate is an evidence that the students do not take the payment as necessary. In order to improve the financial situation, an institutional and operational level settlement is needed to reassure Yonsei students that the student council is trying hard to communicate with them. Also, Palette suggested installing an “Open Table” through which the student council will disclose the detailed usage on how the budgets are used. As such, it promised not to waste their budget on unnecessary terms.

At the same time, Palette emphasized that the student council will still “respect the individual colleges’ independence,” and “pursue their pledges under consultation of the college student councils.”

Meanwhile, STANDBY promised to gain confidence from the students regarding budgetary issue, by reducing unnecessary budget usages, and thereby proving that the students’ payments are “not used in vain.” STANDBY stated that their pledges are realistic, as they have “checked with the university administrations and received confirmations on the issues.”

Overall, the race towards The General Student Council is ongoing. With one vote, you can choose your own student council. And with that one vote, perhaps you can have your university, a place where you spend your next couple of years to change. We hope that you can remember who has the right to shape your environment because now is the time to exercise that right.

연세 애널스

사진부 이승현 기자 (eric6335@yonsei.ac.kr),

시사보도부 김보담 기자 (qheka6009@yonsei.ac.kr)