This winter break was a busy one for the 41st Student Government Association (SGA), Ewha We Can. Since their victory in last year’s presidential election, Ewha We Can has been busy fulfilling the promises they made to Ewha students. During winter break, they planned the 2009 Freshmen Orientation, established the Tuition Solution Center, implemented the course wish list system for this year’s course registration and started negotiating with the school to implement the credit accumulation system.

 

 


 

The 2009 Freshmen Orientation on Feb. 24 at Welch-Ryang Auditorium took the form of a musical where a group of professional actors and two freshmen performed on stage. The notable aspect of this orientation is that 100 freshmen actually participated in the production process. The 100 volunteers established a committee in which they were responsible for planning the orientation and decorating the auditorium. In the musical, the main actress took a time machine back to the old days of Ewha, which gave the audience a grasp of the school’s history. The response was encouraging. Kim Dae-hye (Chemistry, 1) who went to the orientation, said the program was “very well thought out” and felt she was “welcomed by all the sunbaes (upper classmen).”

 

 

Ewha We Can has also put efforts into helping students with high tuition-fees from the 2009 spring semester. Ewha is carrying out a “tuition ombudsman” system, which helps students in urgent need of tuition. The SGA established a Tuition Solution Center, opened on March 2, at the Student Union Building room 318. The center is a place where students can meet one-on-one with four professional consultants, who are either Ewha graduates or former Ewha faculty members. Students who receive consulting, depending on their situation, will receive financial aid, be introduced to a job, be introduced to a sponsor or will be aided with meal tickets. “Even if students are going through hardships because of high tuition, there are not many places they can get help,” said Lim Na-youn (Voice, 4) president of the SGA. “So we believe that the center will help students find practical solutions to their problems.”

 

 

Students can call the center at 02) 3277-3690. The line is open 24 hours during the tuition payment period. Otherwise, it operates from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The SGA also innovated the course registration system. It added a course wish list that enabled students to choose a maximum of 15 courses and simply click on the enter button to input their final schedules.

 

 

“During the first week of school, students make many changes in our schedules. Before we had to look up the class number to register, which is really time consuming,” said Choi Jin-Ah (Chinese, 2) “However, by implementing this wish list system, I could really save time, since I didn’t have to look up the class numbers all over again.” The SGA has also been negotiating with the school to implement the credit accumulation system. “This is a system where students can use their accumulated credits from previous semesters, and transfer those credits to another semester. Unlike the current system where students can only take up to a maximum of 18 credits per semester, this system will be not limit students to a certain number of credits,” said Lim. “However, we are still in the process of negotiating with the school, and we hope to implement this by the end of this spring semester.”

 

 

There is more to come from the SGA. In March, it is planning to carry out the Ewha shoe design contest as part of the Ewha shoe rental system, and it is working on the library electronic display board. “One of the most controversial issues was the Ewha shoe rental system during our campaign last year,” said Lim. “There were financial issues, and the degree of students’ satisfaction with the system. So, to know the students’ needs and opinions, we decided to carry out a design contest, so we can see the minds of our fellow Ewha students through their participation.” The contest will be carried out in March, and the whole process will be open to all students. Ewha We Can is also planning the “Ewha Goose Dream Concert” as part of the Dadedong festival in May. The SGA wanted to make the dreams of students at Ewha become reality.

 

 

“There are students out there who are having difficulty making their dreams come true due to many different reasons, one being financial,” said Lim. “So we will be gathering the requests of students, choose some of them and actually help their dreams come true.”

 

 

 SGA’s passion to make Ewha a better place for students will continue in the second semester. The SGA is planning to establish both a side dish store along with the Korea Consumers' Cooperative Federation (KCCF) and the 19,000 Scholarship Fund to raise 190 million won worth of scholarships. “The thoughts of Ewha students are our proposals and the wishes of Ewha students are our policies. We promise to be an SGA of realization rather than just of words,” said Kim Yun-hee (Law, 4), the current vice-president of Ewha We Can.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

저작권자 © Ewha Voice 무단전재 및 재배포 금지