More than half of the 87 present student representatives at the Sept. 27 assembly voted in favor of the committee.
“School regulations apply directly to students,” said Shin You-jin (Sculpture, 3) the vice president of the SGA. “But students have not had the right to revise the regulations. We will raise our voices in bringing change to current school regulations.”
As of now, the committee has been given approval to work only for this semester under the current SGA, but the SGA hopes to make it an independent and permanent student rights center in the future. The committee’s objective is to amend university regulations it considers unfair to students.
The committee, a subsidiary unit of the Student Government Association, was established on the basis of paragraph three, article two, section two of the Student Governance Regulations. The clause states that the SGA can establish a special committee under SGA with approval from student representatives to the general assembly.
According to a posting on the SGA’s Web site, some school regulations violate students’ constitutional rights, such as freedom of speech.
“School regulations were last revised more than 30 years ago,” said Cho Hee-young (Law, 3), the committee head assigned by the SGA. “Society’s structure and perceptions have changed since the 1980s. The school has to keep up with the fast changing world.”
School’s administrative system is another issue according to Cho at the assembly.
“The school regulations have been under the school president’s name. Students cannot do anything,” Cho said.
The committee plans to revise school regulations through such means as sending official letters to request revisions or meeting with university officials. If the school does not respond, the committee will prepare, as a last resort, a constitutional petition against the school for violating students’ rights.
The school knows about the committee but is waiting for it to make the first move.
“There has not been an official revision request from the SGA, but the school will discuss the issue when the committee starts taking action,” said Ahn Eun-joo, from the Office of Student Affairs.
There has not been previous efforts to revise the school regulation since now but SGA believes it is the right time to do so.
“Sookmyung Women’s University is currently in the middle of a lawsuit with the school about the school regulations and Chung-Ang University has issues with school regulations as well,” said Kim Hyun-jin (Law, 3), one of the committee members. “Ewha may not seem like they do not have problems with the school regulations on the outside. But some students do have problems with the current school regulations and problems with the current regulations may cause bigger problems in the future.”
“Some students do have problems with the current school regulations and problems with the current regulations may cause bigger problems in the future.”
The committee is working on a provisional draft for the revision and will later plan on further approval from the entire student body and the procedures.
The General Assembly discussed six further items at its meeting: the SGA’s summer and September activities, a settled account report for spring semester, Woojuin’s plan for Oct. 6 and beyond, the revision of clauses in Student Governance Regulations, detailed rules for the independent student organization alliance and the SGA’s fall semester budget.