According to the election results provided by the student council of the College of Social Science, the Political Science, Public Administration, and Psychology departments had to cancel their elections as the number of votes did not reach over 50 percent of eligible student voters. The department of Korean studies, and the Orchestral Instruments Department failed to hold elections as there were no candidates willing to run for the student council. They are planning to resume the elections next year
Park Soo-jung (Political Science, 3), the representative of the student council of the College of Social Science, explained these unsatisfactory results by saying, "Lack of student participation results from lack of publicity. In the case of the political science department, not many juniors and sophomores participated in the poll because they did not know who the candidates were. We are planning to resume elections next March."
Other students expressed criticism of the role of the student council as the main factor that caused the low participation. Lim Yoon-young (Economics, 2) said, " I personally think that the reason students don"t participate in the poll is because they don"t know what the student council is doing or what exactly they are working for. If they want to draw more students into the election, they must reveal what kinds of strategies they have in order to contribute to students" needs, and show the results of their strategies through actions."
In response to the problems, the candidates for the president of the Student Government Association (SGA) revealed their plans for the improvement of next year"s election campaign. Chung Ji-eun (Law, 2) of Yes, Ewha said, "In order to enhance the number of votes, the SGA must know what students need and why they lack interest in the election campaign."
According to Choi Ji-sun (French Language & Literature, 4) of Happy Virus, "More clubs should be established for students to join so that they can learn the importance of cooperation. This will be an ideal solution to draw students" interest into school-related activities."
As a tip for becoming a successful candidate, Jung Ji-yeon (English Education, 2), who was elected as the representative of the student council of her department, commented, "The focal point for the whole election is to show what the student council can do for the students and ask them to vote so that the student council can work to benefit the department."
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