The Ewha Voice sat with candidates Seong and Kang for an interview on Nov. 8 regarding their SGA presidential election campaign promises.
Q. What are your motives for running for the 46th SGA?
Seong Hee-yeon (Seong): I was a quiet student who rarely participated in school activities, but I wanted to know more about the school before I graduate Ewha, so I decided to work in the SGA in 2013. Working as a SGA member turned out being more interesting than I had expected. I especially loved hearing Ewha students’ voices. This is why I have signed up to run as president of the SGA.
Kang Da-young (Kang): I found out that many problems in school are systematic ones that individuals cannot solve alone. I joined the SGA to solve these problems together as a group. The achievements of Woori Ewha, the 45th SGA, has made me realize the power of the student body, and thus motivated me to run as vice president.
Seong: Synergy has the meaning of combining individual elements to create a greater effect. Like this meaning, Synergy Ewha hopes to bond with students and foster greater improvement in Ewha.
Q. Lowering tuition is a campaign promise that is always of high interest. What is the particular figure you plan to set and with what measures do you plan to lower tuition?
Seong: Our plan is to demand a 12 percent tuition cut. Ewha inflated its budget last year, leaving a gap of 245 million won. If we assume there are 15,000 students, 160 million won could be distributed to each student with this extra money. If we take office, we will take hold of this inflated budget, then plan to set up a department that concentrates on tuition and scholarship. We will ask for references from the school’s research institutes and people who participate in National Assembly meetings to discuss how we can prepare for our plans. We also plan to hold a week of collective action to demand tuition cut.
Q. The campaign promise on “trial course registration” raises a question of effectiveness. Can you specify your plan?
Seong: The current course registration system has many problems. One big problem is that students cannot register for courses they wish to take due to lack of classes. The school is failing to meet such needs. To resolve this problem, we seek to implement the trial course registration so that the school can estimate the course demand of students and open enough classes.
Seong: The 45th SGA received positive evaluations for giving fast feedbacks. We will also try to quickly follow-up with problems and questions by using the Facebook page and KakaoTalk efficiently.
In addition, we found out that students pay much attention to information and notifications posted in restroom stalls. It would be desirable if we could make a restroom newsletter and ask for student opinions.
Kang: Furthermore, we plan to create an SGA mobile application as an alternative to the SGA Web site. Through the application, students will be updated with news and notifications from the SGA.
Q. Are there any other remarks you would like to deliver to Ewha students?
Kang: The 45th SGA has made many achievements, but tuition and scholarship issues still remain unsolved. We want to work together with Ewha students to make realistic changes and achieve our goals. As our slogan states, “Ewhains as owners! If we stick together, Synergy Ewha is possible.” Our greatest intention is to raise Ewha students as owners of Ewha. We hope students can have a say in issues concerning tuition and scholarship, community, education and welfare. We want to make the 46th SGA, Synergy Ewha, together with Ewha students.
* Reporters: Lee Sang-ha and Yoon hye-joon
* Emails: banilab5748@ewhain.net, hajun1237@ewhain.net
Ewha Voice
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