Photo by Choi Hye-jung
To establish the college student council for 2023, all 14 colleges at Ewha created election commissions. Although the specific schedule varies between colleges, every student college election will be held from Nov. 23 to 24. Many college student council election commissions received candidate registration on either Nov. 7 or 8 and made the final candidacy announcement on the day after the candidate registration. The announcements were followed by candidates’ election campaigns, which resumed for the first time since the pandemic began. The commissions are promoting the election through multiple programs.
Kim Dajeong, the Chair of the 55th Student Election Commission of College of Education, is striving to encourage more students to submit Personal Information Agreements (PIA) since the election will be held solely online. According to school regulations, turnout must exceed 50 percent to count votes, and consequently, the participation rate in the PIA must exceed that.
The commission had originally planned a program called “Mystery Education Building” to raise awareness about the necessity of agreements. It was a Halloween-themed program due to the overlapping timing, but the program was canceled after the crowd crush that occurred on Oct. 29 in Itaewon. Instead, the commission published notices and card news to remind students to complete the agreement.
Apart from these arrangements, the education college commission will operate two different programs to increase the turnout during the voting period. For students from the College of Education, an unmanned booth will encourage students to vote. The booth, which will provide an announcement about voting methods and QR codes for voting websites, will be in front of Education Building B. An assortment of snacks will be in the booth to attract voters.
The commission will implement a voting certification event as well, which students can apply for by submitting the screenshots of the “Vote Complete” notification to a Google Form. The commission of the College of Education will give out gifts to some of those who submit.
Kim also emphasized that all colleges would operate elections online, just like they did during the pandemic, but that the rest of the procedures have been and will be conducted in person on campus. These include candidate registration, election campaigns, and policy public hearings. Despite the many in-person procedures, the commissions have posted notices from commissions and candidates’ posters online as well, considering that notifications through online posts have increased dramatically since the outset of the pandemic. This was possible due to the revision of the election rules for operation.
Han Jisu, the Student Council President of the College of Liberal Arts, clarified that there were two major reasons the election will be held online. The presidents of college student councils were conscious of the fact that in-person voting might infringe upon the voting rights of students who contract COVID-19 during the voting period. In addition, there are several college student councils that are at risk of becoming emergency committees due to having no candidates. Han said those colleges without candidates would hold by-elections.
“The online voting system is available for about six months once you have paid,” Han said. “Online voting was also a better option in terms of reducing election costs since we can use the system again for the upcoming by-elections.”
Hwang Yuha and Ryu Joeun are candidates for the College Education student college election. They held the first public campaign for education major students on Nov. 15 to advertise their election pledges. Hwang and Ryu promised to realize the opinions and interests of education students through an active demand survey and communication with students.
Based on the experience in the 2022 Education College Joint Action, the action to hear the requirements of education major students regarding their rights to education, candidates stressed that they would operate projects like the Education College Festival and seminars for educational recruitment exams.
“Through our experience of participating in the student councils of the Department of Social Studies Education and Korean Language Education, we have learned that student councils have a great impact on the school life of individual students,” Hwang said. “We promise to make positive and meaningful changes in the College of Education if we are elected.”