Student governments are autonomous school bodies created to deal with problems and improve the campus environment for students. The biggest role of the student government is to represent students’ opinion to school or other organizations. POSTECH has more student governments than most Postechians expect. Among those governments, four governments have been discussed heavily on the bulletin board after the student government elections on Nov. 4-5. We conducted a survey to gauge how students think about Student Club Association (SCA), Dormitory Resident Association (DRA), Female Undergraduate Association (FUA), and Council of Class Representatives (CCR).
81 students responded to this survey from Oct. 30 - Nov. 5. 48% of students answered that they know well the purpose of establishment and one activity of SCA, and 19% said they give attention to all of activities of the association. DRA got 41% of respondents who knew the purpose of establishment and 36% who could name a representative activity, results of which are similar to FUA. About each 30% of students answered that they only know purpose of establishment or representative activity or just heard about the name of CCR. Also, 40% of students said SCA is quite active, 31% said FUA is not so active and CCR is not at active. SCA is considered the most positive to communicate with students, whereas over 50% said FUA and CCR are not positive. To the question about how critical the position of the organization is, most students said SCA and DRA are necessary but other two organizations are not. Negative voice is much more spoken to FUA and CCR than others. Although SCA and DRA were considered necessary, they should do a better job of notifying students about what they do. All of the governments use millions of KRW every semester but most students are wondering where the money flows to. They want to know what the government does and require it to be more open to Postechians than before.
There was some debate between FUA and students on the bulletin board. Students asked why men cannot vote for the representative of FUA although they pay their dues. To the question, FUA indicated their stance, saying “The purpose of it can be hidden under opinions of so many men. We seek to deal with female problems rather than communication of opposite sexes, which was focused on by men. SCA or DRA also use their dues, and it cannot be realized for the fee to benefit all students. Furthermore, some students suppose FUA does not need to be separated from UA, but it is hard to represent women’s opinion under UA representatives and to receive support from outside.”
An Donghoon (CiTE 12), chief of SCA, said the association’s purpose is to coordinate bond between clubs and it is necessary to intermediate interests between clubs. He also suggested that students pay more attention to events or displays of each club and obey lending and returning time, 12:30 P.M.~1:30 P.M. and 5 P.M.~6 P.M. on Mon - Thu.
Bae Seonghan (ME 12), the representative of DRA, said the association tries to provide better dormitory facilities or culture, such as dormitory toilet reading, according to opinion of residents. It is a useful organization through which student opinion is given to the manager of each dormitory.