▲ 38th ST'art President and Vice President: Ohun Kwon (Left) and Sungwoo Kim (Right)

 

The 38th SeoulTech Student Council election was held again from March 22 to March 24.

In the case of electing the Student Council, a central student organization in charge of the welfare of all students in university, it is common to hold elections before the end of the second semester of the previous year and prepare activities for the following year.

However, this election had some unique challenges.

The Stand:by Campaign Group, which was the single candidate last year, was disciplined three times for 'sharing recommendation forms by those who were not members of the campaign group and 'not removing face-to-face promotional materials after the campaign period.' As a result, the group's registration was canceled according to SeoulTech's bylaws of the central election. In addition, the election was canceled due to the absence of candidates, and it was decided to hold an election in March of this year.

In this election, ST'art Campaign Group was the sole candidate for the election, and after votes were cast, the counting ceremony was held on March 24. In order to be a valid result, at least 40% of the enrolled students needed to participate in the election and more than half of them must agree. Of the 10,184 students enrolled at SeoulTech, 41.74% voted. Of these voters, 90.54% voted for ST'art. As a result, the ST'art Student Council was confirmed the winner and sworn into their new role.

Here is an interview conducted with the ST'art Student Council.

 

Interview with ST'art

① Please give a brief introduction about the ST'art Student Council.

ST'art: Hello, we're ST'art, the 38th Student Council. Our name, ST'art, has two meanings. Using ST, which stands for SeoulTech, means that we will 'start' together with our school's students and create 'works of art' together. This year is an important time to wrap up the COVID-19 era of the past two years and turn to faceto-face life. During the COVID-19 situation, there was a lot of chaos, so the Student Council needs to be present to support the student body as it transitions to in-person academics and university events. That's why we ran for and won the election.

 

② Please introduce the pledges of ST'art.

ST'art: There are 26 pledges in 6 areas: 'Education and Career,' 'Culture and Events,' 'PR and Branding,' 'Communication and Exchange,' 'Life and Welfare,' and 'Facility and Safety.' Mentioning them all will make the interview too long. Therefore, we will replace it by leaving an Instagram address where you can see all our pledges. In addition, you can also check information about our various events, so please pay a lot of attention.

 

③ Please introduce the activities that international students can participate in among the events that ST'art is preparing.

ST'art: First, the Eoui Dae Dong Festival (festival) is planned for mid-September. We are planning to hold the festival in person, which was previously held non-face-to-face due to COVID-19. We will plan the festival so that many international students, including both exchange students and degree-seeking students, can experience a Korean university festival and make good memories.

In addition, we will hold a 2022 Qatar World Cup viewing party and cheer on our favorite teams. International students from various countries are also expected to have high expectations for the World Cup. We are planning an event so that we can experience share street cheering culture with our classmates and enjoy watching the World Cup together.

 

④ Lastly, do you have any message you want to say to our students?

ST'art: In our opinion, the most important role of the Student Council is communication. No matter what kind of work we do, the voices of classmates must be reflected. So, we are still conducting a lot of surveys and trying to listen to voices in various ways before proceeding with our work. In addition, many events held by the Student Council are based on the Student Council fee, so in many cases only those who paid the Student Council fee can participate.

However, it seems that it is difficult for international students to participate in events because the contents of the event, including the Student Council fee, have never been announced in a language other than Korean and have not been properly communicated. To resolve these issues, we will continue to discuss solutions with relevant organizations, such as the International Students' Club. If you have any questions or requests, feel free to talk to us at any time. In fact, except under special circumstances, we do not usually have a good opportunity to hear the stories of international students. If you contact us through our social media channels, we will respond sincerely. We hope that you will gain so many memories and learning while attending SeoulTech.

 

Through the interview, we were able to learn some information about the ST'art Student Council, which will be responsible for the students of SeoulTech this year. As mentioned in the last answer, if communication between the Student Council and students is smooth and students' voices can be reflected, there will be greater synergy. While Student Council activities aren't mandatory, it will be even better if we participate and communicate actively. We look forward to creating beautiful SeoulTech art with ST'art.

 

* Contact Information of the ST'art

TEL: 02-970-7012, 10:00-18:00

(during the semester, closed during vacation)

Facebook: 서울과학기술대학교 총학생회

Kakaotalk Channel: https.//pf.kakao.com/_yxatCV

lnstagram: seouItech_38

 

Reporter,

Jonghun Park pjh79937@seoultech.ac.kr