▲ KUSA members bowing to the crowd. Photographed by Kim Seung Hyun.

October 2 was one of the most important days for all the Korea University (KU) student organizations - The Student Representative Meeting. Along with budget and settlement review of all student organizations in KU, the meeting was held in order to discuss amendments to the student constitution. This meeting, however, was possible only if the student representatives participated, or at least were present. The final result was unfortunately a disappointment.


"I will be waiting for you at the 4.18 Main Hall. I earnestly plead to all delegates for their presence,” read the final line of a wallposter by Kang Mignon (’14, Architecture), who was in charge of organizing the Student Representative Meeting. The wall poster not only stressed the importance of the meeting, but also revealed Kang’s sincere appeal to all delegates who were supposed to attend. Despite his passionate plea, however, the final result failed to live up to everybody’s expectations. 

The Student Representative Meeting is one of the most important events for student representatives. As Kang puts it, “It is an event that draws an end to the semester, and that provides a summation of five months.” In this meeting, representatives of different colleges and organizations submit their budget accounts to clarify where revenue came from and where expenses went. 

This meeting, however, had an additional purpose, that made this session more crucial – the deliberation of constitutional amendments. The meeting was supposed to have a discussion on three constitutional amendments, one of which was directly related to the Kakao Talk sexual abuse incident and the Gochoobat incident. These were crucial since, according to Kang, “The amendments were submitted in order to reflect the students’ demands and improve inefficient systems.” He also commented that “if the session failed to come to a conclusion on the three amendments, the same problems would recur in the future.”

Problems for Two Colleges 
The meeting began at 2:00 P.M. with 65 out of 106 delegates present by the time the role-call was made. Each student organizations and colleges were told to submit their budget accounts with proper evidences of transactions to ensure that no money was misused in any way. Problems arose among the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Information and Communications. The College of Liberal Arts lacked account details for transactions that took place in the second and third quarter. The president of the College commented that, “There was a problem in the process of transferring the money from the Emergency Measures Committee to the student union of the College of Liberal Arts.” 

The College of Information and Communications had similar problems. The College was warned prior to the meeting for lacking sufficient evidences to where and when the money was used. The president of the College of Information and Communications, who was in office until last semester, graduated and was unable to provide the necessary receipts of the financial transactions. Budget accounts of the two colleges were therefore voted down by the delegates, and the delegates additionally voted for a disciplinary action against the two colleges. 

   
▲ The Student Representative Meeting in action. Photographed by Kim Seung Hyun.
 
Fewer Delegates Present 
The session needed at least two-third of the delegates, which was 71, to move onto the discussion of constitutional amendments. Delegates, however, did not show up, and the highest number of delegates present was 68, which was still not enough to discuss the amendments.

The president of the Korea University Student Union (KUSA), Park Se Hoon (’13, Political Science and International Relations), continuously reminded the importance of the meeting and urged all members not to leave the meeting half-way and invite any delegates who failed to show up. Unfortunately, the number of present delegates decreased as time passed and was nowhere near two-thirds of the quorum by when the session was ready to discuss the amendments to the constitution. Unsurprisingly, the meeting came to an end without discussing the constitutional amendments, which should have been the main discussion point. The deliberation of these items therefore was postponed. 

Fortunately, delegates were allowed to discuss the bylaws of the election campaign with just the majority of the delegates present. Not much was discussed since most of the delegates were satisfied with the amendments of the bylaws, commenting that the modified bylaws prevented over-competition. The amendments were passed with 54 delegates voting for and two delegates abstaining. 

Disappointment at the Representatives
The greatest disappointment was the fact that too many delegates failed to show up for the meeting. By the time the session was ready to move on the discussing the constitutional amendments, only 56 delegates were present, as opposed to 65 when the first roll-call was done. 

Bitter comments emerged among many delegates. The vice president of the Department of Political Science and Economics, Kim Hyeon Min (’14, Political Science and International Relations), said that the delegates were at fault for their absences and claimed that “unexcused absences for such event should be penalized.” He did, however, also criticize that lack of preparedness of the committee responsible for the event, saying that “the committee lacked sufficient effort to come up with a date when every delegate can gather.”

Students were equally unhappy with the results. One student commented that he was “extremely disappointed by the lack of responsibility of the representatives,” while another student had similar opinions about how the meeting ended, saying that “the representatives have failed to do their job of representing the demands of the students.” The student also criticized that they seemed “ignorant to some of the most important issues on campus.” 

Lessons Learned from the Meeting
Apparently, there was not much to be happy about. Representatives failed to represent and important issues were left undebated. Although the representatives are expected to show a little bit of respect to those who voted for them, this time, they have all failed miserably to reflect the needs of the students. 

The meeting did have some positives though, in that, compared to previous Student Representative Meetings, Kang managed to bring up the attendance quite a lot. The Student Representative Meeting, being so time-consuming and exhausting, has a history of falling short of delegates and being cancelled without discussing anything. However, with the majority of the delegates present, the meeting did accomplish something. Kang pointed out that the activation of the student self-government was one of the biggest achievements of the night.

However, improvements are needed. Although problems eventually get solved and this year’s meetings had more positives than previous ones, some of the crucial elements are missing. As a member of KUSA who will resign from his position soon, Kang wished the next Student Representative Meeting to be “a meeting which can make everyone happy.” Representatives are given the responsibility to speak for the students. To fulfill Kang’s wish is to satisfy all student members of KU, and the first thing the representatives will have to do is to effectively speak for the students. 
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