After winning the election last December by a margin of approximately eight percent of all the votes in the Anam KUSA election, Star:zari has made considerable efforts to put in place many different policies and reforms for KU students. As a result, several changes have been implemented on various aspects of student life. The policies of Star:zari in the spring semester can be divided into two specific fields—the educational rights movement and student welfare.

The Why Not? Project was a project initiated by Star:zari to recover infringed educational rights of students as subjects of education. In the rally that was held on May 4, students requested a meeting with the KU president Yeom Jae Ho, and Star:zari continues to host meetings with the school board to sufficiently convey students’ demands. Despite these efforts, reform seems to be stuck in stalemate. Park Sehoon (’13, Political Science and International Relations), the president of KUSA, said that, “Through recent meetings, we could only reconfirm the discordance between stances of students and the board.” According to a survey conducted by The Granite Tower (GT), 55.8% of participants also felt that there were not many noticeable changes on education reform yet.

Nevertheless, the campaign was a meaningful step in that it was an official movement led by Star:zari to represent the voices of KU students on the issue of education. Especially, the fact that the student association took a major role amplified the ripple effect, and enabled official interactions between students and the school board. Furthermore, this movement attempted to more actively deliver students’ requests as demands instead of suggestions. President Park said that, “Compared to previous movements that had remained as passive proposals, this movement allowed students to demand educational rights through differentiated methods including rallies and meetings.”

Star:zari is preparing specific roadmaps for the continuance of the project by prioritizing feasible changes such as course registration process reformation. According to the survey conducted by GT, 52.2% of students who claimed the necessity of education system reform responded that modification of the course registration process needs to be prioritized. In response, Star:zari is planning a shopping system, where students can automatically attain positions in classes if demand is smaller than supply, starting from next year. This system will eliminate unnecessary competition and provide accurate data regarding demand for particular courses. This effect will enable flexible course management and protect students’ rights to take courses. 

While this feasible reform of the education system and course registration will become realized soon, some stark clashes between students and the board seem to need more time for negotiation. Park explained that the board is adhering to a strong opposition against important issues, especially against the revival of drop system. He said that, “For these issues, including those regarding tuition and entrance fee, we are planning to cooperate with other universities under similar circumstances and expand this project into social agendas as well.”

Star:zari also established new welfare policies that could contribute to the enhancement of students’ daily lives. There were various innovations in the area of residence and living expenses, most prominently, “Byeolbit (Starlight) Card” and share house system introduced new prospects to student lives. “Byeolbit Card” provides discounts to students when purchasing goods in local stores through various partnerships. The share house system even expands further in that it provides safe and inexpensive residential environments through renting to groups of students from distant regions. These novel ideas will definitely provide differentiated convenience to students by reducing their living and housing expenses.

The implementation of such systems is very meaningful in that it clearly shows Star:zari’s efforts to help students even outside of school by providing assistance in various aspects. Especially, since negotiation regarding dormitory reformation takes a long period of time, the fact that these systems can exert immediate influence on student lives makes them more valuable. Park explained that, “When students become part of KU, they automatically attain membership in KUSA. We wanted them to acknowledge their membership in their daily lives by becoming beneficiaries of these policies.” These policies clearly exhibit Star:zari’s will to expand into everyday life instead of remaining as a passive student body inside school life.

Still, one limitation throughout the process of implementation exists. Most welfare policies implemented by Star:zari are not widely known to many students of KU. Since these policies are mostly advertised through Star:zari’s Facebook account, many students can easily miss the opportunity to receive benefits. Jung Jun (’16, Interdisciplinary Studies), a freshman at KU, said that, “I actually never heard of the share house system before. Even though it seems very innovative, I have not seen people around me taking advantage of it. It would be better to have more advertisements so that these policies can reach more students.”

About this aspect, Park responded that, “It is true that there are some realistic limitations on Facebook advertisement. However, this seems to be the best option, and we are currently utilizing as many methods as we can.” In order to resolve this fundamental limitation, Park emphasized the necessity of a united application system that can provide information about new policies through cell-phone application. If the number of advertisements increases in the future, these welfare policies will be able to result in greater momentum by providing help to a larger number of students.

While many changes have been made by Star:zari both inside and outside of campus, it is still preparing other initiatives for the fall semester. Specifically, after enforcing the shopping system, it will continue to negotiate with the board about various issues including improvements to freshmen courses, stabilization of Three-No Policy, and increase of core-elective courses as parts of the Why Not? Project. Regarding student welfare, it is expanding the ranges of policies that were established last semester by providing services such as real estate assistance to international students as well.

Even though concerns regarding particular aspects of Why Not? Project and welfare policies exist, it is indisputable that Star:zari is pioneering a new prospect for student life. While more time is required for a holistic evaluation, its first semester was meaningful in that there were many unprecedented changes. If these changes are supplemented with more advertisements and communication in the future, they will result in positive influences. Furthermore, new methodology in the educational rights movement and innovations in student welfare have shown Star:zari’s will to become a companion of KU students. Therefore, it will be interesting to see how Star:zari can open a brighter future in its second semester.