No. 155 / Dec 6, 2021
On November 18, 2021, Ajou University Press: The Ajou Globe, Ajou University Newspaper, and Ajou Educational Broadcasting System held a public Hearing for the student council candidates in Dasan Hall. Starting with the introduction of the candidates and their major pledges, the first part consisted of a Questions and Answers (Q&A) session by Ajou University Press, and the second part consisted of questions from students. There was also a Q&A session on non-pledges. Due to restrictions on social distancing, Ajou University Press and 28 general students were allowed to attend, but the atmosphere of the public hearing was still solemn.
The election campaigns of the 41st Student Council are “Dam-a” and “Our Ajou with Plenty”. The student president candidate is Kim Hyung-woo, Departments of French literature, and the student vice president candidate is Park Si-yeon, Departments of industrial engineering. The categories of pledges are largely divided into education, autonomy, welfare, culture, and admission/graduation/employment, respectively, with three to six detailed pledges for each. Those in the education sector concern the opening of an educational window and the expansion of cyber lectures, and in the autonomous sector, the normalization of the operation of the drawing association and the policy for the system of succession for the student council. In the welfare sector, there is a pledge to expand the scope of partnerships on campus to Gwanggyo Cafe Street, Haenggung-dong, and quarantine companies, introduce convenience stores, and install vending machines, and in culture to develop Ajou University logo fonts and mascots. Other pledges concern such issues as career union camps with other universities and degree uniforms by adding categories related to admission/graduation/employment.
The first Q&A session was held Ajou University Press. They asked the candidates how their proposals differed from the current method of collecting students’ complaints and the problems with previous drawing association regarding the pledge to normalize its operation. In responded that the absence of the Dormitory Student Council (DSC) was not confidential, but when restoring the DSC, he said that he learned that the DSC was created under the direction of the head of the dormitory. Therefore, for a fair drawing society, a drawing society reconstruction committee must be established, and until then, a dormitory Task Force (TF) team will be established within the student council to address dormitory-related problems.
The next question concerned solutions to the problem of failing to inform affiliated partners of promotions and whether it was discussed with related companies, the extent of the reorganization of affiliated businesses, and the expansion of affiliated areas. The student vice presidential candidate replied that this had been discussed in advance and generally positive responses had been received, but the details of the partnership had not yet been discussed. The specific pledge plan will further increase the scope of discounts through a survey of desired affiliates and short-term partnerships with the Aridan-gil Shopping Center Council and will continue to be conducted following the existing methods through Facebook and Instagram.
When asked about developing another mascot besides Chi-to, a mascot already used in external activities, regarding the detailed pledge about the development of mascots to establish symbols of Ajou University, the student president candidate replied that he was not the mascot of Ajou University but of G.A.i.A, Great Ambassador In Ajou. The presidential candidate added that Chi-to is loved by many students and outsiders, but his current popularity alone cannot be taken as an official indicator of his popularity as a new university mascot. The student president candidate continued that he plans to use the new mascot in the long run in tandem with Chi-to. Additionally, there is a pledge to develop an Ajou University font or share online templates to establish representativeness.
Students who could not attend offline public hearings could ask questions online through Google Forms. In the autonomous discussion of the general student body, many clubs reported not being assigned a club room space. on this problem, discussion groups and small sports societies were asked how to solve the problem of not being assigned space because they did not meet the allocation criteria. In response, the student vice president candidate stated that there were difficulties in Hearing the screening criteria due to the short history of non-academic club awards and said he would divide the space into academic clubs and non-academic clubs if they were not tied up with similar characteristics.
Voting result
After the public Hearing, the student council election was held from November 22 to November 24. Ajou University’s National Election Commission announced the results on November 24, whereby the “Dam-a” election campaign was elected to the student council with 69.9% of the vote.
By Joo Eun-jin, AG Cub Reporter
jej0288@ajou.ac.kr
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