The attempted emergency general assembly on May 26 only turned out to be a discussion session as only 66 of 151 student representatives were present. At least 76 representatives out of total 151 representatives must be present at the assembly to constitute a quorum.
The agenda to be decided was whether to hold petition drives every day in front of Pfeiffer Hall and to occupy Pfeiffer Hall to protest the school’s answer to the SGA’s grand five demands, sent to the school on March 31.
The SGA’s five grand demands, passed at the first student meeting on March 31, mainly focused on refunding raised tuition fees to freshmen to the school. The school responded on April 15 that it cannot refund the tuition fees, but can extend scholarship benefits.
In the two months since the response, the SGA and the student representatives have been trying to challenge the school to provide a better response but they have failed repeatedly to collect the supports and bring the issue to a conclusion.
The SGA’s previous attempt to hold an emergency general assembly on April 15 failed due to lack of a quorum. The SGA student meeting on May 17 lacked a quorum as well.
The spring semester is nearly at its end but the SGA has yet to finalize an answer or even decide the next step to take.
“It is hard to reach conclusions even within the Central Operation Committee,” SGA Vice President Kim Ji-young (Philosophy, 3) said. “It is even still debatable whether to accept the school’s answer or not.”
Some students said the SGA’s actions are too slow and that it should come up with at least a plan for its next move this semester, if not the final results.
“I think the SGA is not trying enough to seal the deal quickly,” said Kim Han-gyeol (Sculpture, 4), one of the representatives of the United Committee of Student Clubs. “Many of the students want the SGA to finalize the deal before summer vacation when the five grand demands are forgotten by the school.”