As the year 2015 is heading toward the end, the term of the 47th Student Government Association (SGA), Be Ewha, will terminate on Dec. 31. This year, Be Ewha has strived to fulfill the pledges they had made during the election period. Ewha Voice will look back on Be Ewha’s achievements and changes they have made throughout the year.
During their term, Be Ewha tried to focus on the issues and problems that many students face. Some of their efforts turned out to be successful, whereas some others turned out to be unsatisfactory.
Be Ewha’s first achievement, installation of additional lockers on campus, drew student’s attention. There have been complaints over the shortage of locker provision on campus. Realizing this inconvenience, Be Ewha kept its promise by installing 80 new lockers in the Ewha Campus Complex (ECC). The original pledge was to install 5,000 more lockers by the end of the year, but practically this was not feasible. It was decided that further installment will occur over the course of next few years.
In addition, Be Ewha started a friend-matching program called “Be Friends” for freshmen. They attempted to help students who want to make friends with similar interests. This program attracted so many students that it could not accept all the applicants.
Be Ewha had also put a lot of effort to turn Ewha’s annual school festival into more passionate and creative event. They planned to hold a festival where Ewha students themselves can run different events and competitions while enjoying the festive mood. During the festival, students held numerous events such as busking, photo exhibition, and cooking contests.
Although Be Ewha has fulfilled many of its pledges, there are still problems they could not quite solve.
The members have been trying to lower the tuition fee and restore the Exellence 2 scholarship, which had been abolished starting from this semester. However, the school remained firm in their current positions against their pledges. Additionally, their attempt to lower the cost of food in cafeterias and to improve the quality of food ended without much success.
Moreover, despite Be Ewha’s effort to solve problem of excessive foreign tourists on the campus, the result was unsuccessful. In order to take action, they attempted to collect actual cases of damage by foreign tourists as their first step. Unfortunately, the members were unable to find enough cases as an evidence to make any changes.
“I think Be Ewha was active in speaking up for students,” said Kim Ji-hyeon, a sophomore in Division of Communication & Media. “Their failure to lower the tuition fee or solve the foreign tourist problem, this was due to less cooperation by the school, not a lack of effort on the part of the SGA. I hope the next student council improves communication between the students and the school.”
Encompassing all the events held this year, the current president of Be Ewha, Son Sol commented on her activities of the year.
“I am glad that I could meet many students and participate in various activities during the term,” Son said. “I am also very thankful to the Ewha students who joined us in speaking out against the school’s sudden policy changes.”
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