Better SKKU, Better Student Life
SKKUP, the 55th student council of Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), carried out election promises to enhance students’ academic lives and uplift their satisfaction with the studying environments in diverse areas. The credit system for students serving in the military underwent revisions that resulted in an increased credit limit and a broader range of courses. Furthermore, the GPA conversion system of SKKU went through alteration on the 13th of this July. The new system allows SKKU students to have a higher percentile with the same grade points than before, which makes Kingos more comparable with students from other universities. In addition, SKKUP extended the operating time of the Humanities and Social Sciences Campus (HSSC) shuttle bus. On February 26th, the shuttle bus schedule was extended from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. to 7 a.m.-11 p.m. on weekdays during the semester. On September 1st, 2023, the Jongno 07 bus began operating again since its shutdown in October 2022, along with its new route map containing the HSSC. SKKUP also originally promised the expansion of the Jongno 02 route but altered the plan after discussions with the Jongno District Office. Moreover, SKKUP rebranded ESKARA, an integrative festival of SKKU, put more characteristics into the festival, and brought together the Kingos from both campuses. Additionally, SKKUP released a collection of uniforms based on ESKARA’s signature color theme of deep green. SKKUP’s efforts for the refinement of school life and image received positive feedback from Kingos.
Empty Promises
Although SKKUP’s term is nearing its end, many of SKKUP’s campaign promises were unkept, with some initiatives not even being delivered. SKKUP has not fulfilled its promises, such as redesigning the school shuttle bus, refining the terminal for the current location of shuttle buses, and displaying it on the KINGO-M application. Furthermore, campaign commitments, including improvements to the transportation of the Natural Sciences Campus (NSC) and Wi-Fi installation on shuttle buses between the HSSC and NSC, remain unaddressed. An NSC student, Yang Hyunwoo (Sophomore, Department of Nano Engineering), shared, “I was initially excited about the Wi-Fi installation on the HSSC-NSC shuttle bus because I visit HSSC often. However, it has been a year, and there have not been any updates on it,” during an interview with the Sungkyun Times (SKT). Moreover, SKKUP promised diverse businesses to foster communications between the council, school, and students; however, only one of them was carried out. Except for the SKKUPlace offline booth, the offline student community project SKKUPartner, the student council online information center SKKUPoint, and the group mentoring, which was a part of the alumni connection projects, were never mentioned after the election. Moreover, the promise regarding the dualization of the final grade notification period and objection period was not completed. Since the two periods overlap during the semester, if a professor changes grades on the last day of the notification period, students may not know if their objection was received properly. SKKUP, aware of this problem, promised the separation of the two periods, but this has still not been addressed. SKKUP further announced that it had held several meetings with school officials and delivered the issues to the SKKU Academic Affairs Office last May. However, students remain unsure about the grade and objection announcement procedures for the current semester, as no updates have been provided since May.