There have been many conflicts between the President of the Student Club Association (SCA), Hyeon Ryeol Cho (MSE 11), and the club representatives since the beginning of the semester. The main conflict arose from how the funds from the school should be distributed among the clubs and what the club activity report format should be like.
At the first meeting of the club representatives, the president of SCA proposed a totally different method for distributing the school funds for the clubs. In the past, each club had an equal chance of receiving the funds. The treasurer only had to provide the appropriate receipt, and a proportion of it would be funded. This year, the president of the SCA thought clubs that are more active should receive more support; thus, he proposed that the club repre- sentatives should report each activity with photos of all participating members weekly. Moreover, he later announced that the signatures of each participating member should be included.
Although the intentions of the SCA might have been ideal, the other club representatives did not find the solution favorable. Some opinions at the meeting were that the proposal lacked details to be carried out immediately. Even if the reports with photos are provided, they can be easily manipulated. Furthermore club repre- sentatives, who have tried to follow the proposal, claimed that it was impossible to take photos of every activity. Another flaw was that because characteristics of the clubs are different, it seemed illogical to compare the activities of all clubs. For example, clubs such as Happy Bubbles (scuba diving) can only become active during the breaks.
The SCA had a point in that the club leaders should send in regular reports of their club activities. Without these reports, there is no evidence in what the clubs have done. However, the attitude that SCA took to enact its visions caused hostility among the club leaders. For example, towards the dictator-like attitude of the SCA president, who claimed that he had the right to enforce the changes that SCA envisioned, the president of PoApper, Park Byung Jin (CSE 11) wrote a post on POSB declaring that the SCA regulation does not support such rights. President of MSSA, Sangwoo Mo (MATH 11) expressed, “As a past member of SCA, I do acknowledge its idea. However, it is questionable whether the measures that the SCA wanted to enact are practical.”
The second meeting of the club representatives lasted almost four hours. In the end, it was decided that the funding should be distributed in a similar fashion as last year, unless the club does not meet the minimum activity requirements. As the representatives are to hand in activity reports monthly, the SCA will use these to decide whether or not the clubs are active.