It has been a year and a half since POSTECH adapted all its activities to the COVID-19 pandemic. While it is easy to check how classes are being done through surveys and course evaluation, the information on how club activities are conducted has not been organized. The Postech Times investigated how club activities were conducted in the 2021 Spring Semester.
In the 2020 Spring Semester, performance club activities were absent since they were difficult to hold online. However, during the 2021 Spring Semester, as more students moved into the dormitory in the middle of the semester, club activities were able to be cautiously held for performance clubs. CTRL-D, the dancing club, had “Minischool” and “Dance Challenge”. In “Minischool”, dance lessons were given to the new members by seniors. In “Dance Challenge”, members filmed a short video of them dancing to Peaches by Justin Bieber. All events were conducted with less than five people. GT LOVE, the busking club, held “In search of the sound of GT LOVE”. It was an online ensemble where each member played their role individually and mixed the sessions online to complete a full song. Also, the members of a cappella club, UMCHI, each played their role and combined their songs online. The drama club, ADLIB, practiced each role individually and performed a play online.
Academic clubs, exhibitory clubs, and hobby clubs conducted their activities online in small groups. In Doran Doran, the writing club, club members each wrote short articles every week and talked about the articles online. The robotics club, POWER-ON, divided their members into groups and each group conducted an engineering design project online. MSSA, the Management Strategy Student Association, held online seminars to instruct new members and held team activities on establishing business strategies.
Since sports are hard to play online, the activities of the sports clubs were most affected. KICK-OFF, the futsal club, held a “Crossbar Challenge”. Each member took a video of kicking a crossbar 10 times and competed with the number of successes. However, regular futsal games could not be held. The badminton club CLEAR ceased their meeting this semester.
About this semester’s club activities, Lee Jeong-woo (Mueunjae 19), head of the Student Union and chief of the Student Club Union, said, “there are no clear governmental regulations on university club activities. Hence, different regulations are established at each university. The Student Club Union of POSTECH is working in every way to resume club activities. However, only a few clubs have actually engaged in activities until now. This year, the judo club was expelled from the central club for postponing registration for more than a year. If the situation remains unchanged, I am not sure how many clubs will disappear.”
Overall, compared to 2020, club activities became more active. Clubs were able to recruit more members since a student club tour was held online during the Freshman Orientation. However, club activities are still largely restricted due to the pandemic. Some clubs had proper activities, but most clubs were inactive or their activities were greatly reduced. To provide students with more satisfactory club activities, it is hoped that proper guidelines will be prepared to resume active club meetings, the COVID-19 pandemic lessens, and the prohibition on the private gathering of five or more people is lifted.