In 2022, the 54th student council Spring has been newly launched and will be drawing a lot of attention. The student council’s name, Spring, symbolizes the development and the warm springtime of Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU). They have announced that they will constantly strive to replenish the two-year gap experienced by Kingos due to the contactless college life. For a better college life, Spring has suggested different, fresh pledges from S:Energy, the last student council. Therefore, the Sungkyun Times (SKT) would like to interview the 54th student council Spring to share their goals for this year.
Warm Spring Coming to SKKU
Q1. Please introduce yourselves.
Jang: Hello, I am the 54th Student President of the Humanities and Social Sciences Campus, Jang Pil-kyu. I major in Film, Television, and Multimedia.
Choi: Hello, I am Choi Yu-seon, the 54th Student President of the Natural Sciences Campus. I major in Mechanical Engineering.
Q2. Why did you decide to run for President of the student council?
Choi: I worked as the Director of Operations at S:Energy on the Natural Sciences Campus, but I had some regrets at the time. Despite the necessity to make the actions of one unified campus, I found that the two campuses did not often work together. Therefore, I thought that I could do better with more like-minded people.
Jang: Similarly to what he said, Choi persuaded me first to make a unified student council. While I worked as the President of the School of Art, I felt that I wanted to do more from my presidency term, which was too short to make any significant impact. Therefore, believing that 2022 will be better than the last two years, I decided to become a Student President who could make Kingos love our campus again.
Q3. The name of the student council is Spring. Can you explain the meaning and image of this Spring?
Jang: I wanted to draw a lively, warm, and dazzling student community. The campus and the student communities have been frozen for the last two years, and I thought that the image of melting the frozen campus resembles the feeling of the spring season. In addition, I hope the name implies that the warmth and excitement of spring will be continued throughout 2022, even after spring has passed.
Spring for Developing both Kingos and SKKU
Q4. What was the most important aspect you kept in mind when making pledges?
Jang: When making pledges, what I thought was not “what the student council can do,” but more like “what we have to do.” I tried to think a lot about the role, necessity, and significance of the student council. My answer was that the student council should be a foundation for all college councils that cover each school and student. It is true that lanning big events is important, but I thought that the more important thing is to walk in the same footsteps with students and help each other, so I tried hard to include these parts while making pledges.
Choi: This spring will be the first back-to-school semester after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. Therefore, I wanted to revive the positive culture of the past and improve it in a positive way. Considering the importance of the student society, I wanted to support them as much as possible as a member of student council. This soon led to thoughts about what the student council could do with the authority as a representative of all students at SKKU. In this regard, we tried to make pledges for various colleges and departments to cooperate with each other, like “Spring Mates.”
Q5. Last year, the festival was held through online streaming to reduce the gap of contact activities. Do you have any special plans prepared for Kingos this year?
Jang: Most classes are going offline. It can be a good supporting reason to hold other offline activities. Currently, we are planning to have both campuses’ festivals on the same day so that students from different campuses can enjoy the festival together. We expect that active interactions between the two campuses could be achieved through this new festival. Since students are adapted to virtual festivals, we also consider a hybrid festival by combining virtual festivals with offline festivals, creating a better synergy.
Q6. Many Kingos are interested in SKKU branding businesses like “Hanbok Day.” Are there any specific plans for these?
Choi: We have received a lot of questions about whether we provide welcome gifts for freshmen or note-taking formats for tablets. However, in the long term, we think that it is better to suggest some directions to SKKU on how to establish a branding strategy rather than the student council deciding alone. Actually, SKKU’s symbolic green color did not exist until my freshman year but has been established by students’ requests. Like this case, I think it is more effective to let the university know that students want to make something distinctive for our university.
Q7. It must be difficult to gather many colleges’ opinions into one. How are you dealing with this?
Jang: We were able to solve this problem by holding Freshman Orientation. Instead of spending time on an overnight trip, we held daily orientations at the beginning of the semester. Each college rented a place on campus, and students ran the orientation. In this process, we ran into many troubles with communicating with students. However, while communicating with various colleges, we found that we do not have to make different colleges’ opinions into only one. As it is natural that different colleges have different opinions, I think our job as a student council is to mediate those opinions, not to unify.
Q8. Were there any troubles while negotiating with the school? If so, how were you able to overcome the hardship?
Jang: Actually, the level of difficulty varies significantly from topic to topic. Sometimes it goes very smoothly, but sometimes it is like being between a rock and a hard place. What the university wants for its development and what our peers need are inevitably different. That is why it is always challenging to negotiate with the university. Therefore, rather than overcoming it, I think our job is to manage it no matter how difficult it is.
Choi: Furthermore, since the interests among components are different even within the campus, I think it is natural to have conflicts when deciding something. During those conflicts, the student council can speak out to the school by the opinions of peers and the representativeness received from them. Therefore, I think that listening to as many opinions as possible from our peers and appealing them to the university is best for both university and Kingos.
Wish You All the Best in 2022, Spring!
Q9. Do you have any resolutions for taking charge of the student council?
Jang: For this year, what I would like to do is to create a reliable student council. I have been getting out of my comfort zone to do my best to achieve this goal. I promise to make Spring a trustworthy student council for SKKU.
Choi: I want to be a proud Student President. At the end of my term, my final goal is to make people think of me and say, “He tried his best.”
Q10. Do you have any last words for Kingos?
Jang: I hope that students will show a lot of interest in us. Of course, it is our job to bring their attention, but it will be essential for students to pay attention to us to support our opinions. Please actively participate in surveys and other upcoming events, and give us a sharp observation to improve the student council. Spring is a very open community. Please feel free to contact us in any form if you have any questions.
Choi: I agree with what Jang said. For the student council to be powerful, the school needs to know that many students support our ideas. Please actively give us your opinions no matter what. We will always listen, identify, and try to come up with a solution. Thank you.
