Ewha We Can won Ewha’s 41st Student Government Association (SGA) presidential election, held from November 26 to 28. Ewha We Can gained 2,218 (30.39 percent) votes out of a total of 7,165 ballots cast. Lim Na-youn (Voice, 4) was elected as president and Kim Yun-hee (Law, 4) as the vice president of the SGA for the year 2009. The three competing parties were Ewha 3.0, High 5 Ewha, Only Change Can Survive and Ewha We Can. Only Change Can Survive was second, receiving 2,028 votes.
President-elect Lim said, “First of all, we would like to thank Ewha students who participated in voting even though the weather conditions were not so favorable during the election period. In a return, we promise to keep the propomises we made.”
Lim says the main issue Ewha We Can has to solve in 2009 is lack of trust in the SGA. “Many Ewha students have lost trust in the SGA. In the process of finding out the main causes of distrust, we think we will find out the real and desperate needs of Ewha students. We hope to regain the students’ trust. It is considered as our main aim,” said Lim.
Ewha We Can proposed establishing a Tuition Solution Center and freezing tuition fees, a step which has been already promised for 2009 by the school administration. “Although, the school proposed freezing tuition, we still need to make sure Ewha students get the best benefit possible from the tuition they pay. Also, there should not be any other fees added,” said Kim.
Lim and Kim also made plans to start a credit accumulation system, an early class registration system, and a one-click class registration system. Their proposals to improve welfare for students in general included a shoe rental system. In addition, they proposed holding an “Ewha Goose Dream Concert” where students can demonstrate their talents and a one-to-one donation campaign for every Ewha student.
Vice president-elect Kim said, “The thoughts of Ewha students are our proposals and the wishes of Ewha students are our policy. We promise to be a SGA of realization more than just out of words.”
The election had to be prolonged for a day, due to low student participation. For a valid election, participation of over 50 percent of enrolled students is required. However, only 38 percent voted during the first two days of the election. The final figure of 7,176 ballots represents 20.8 percent of the student body.