Student Society Collides on Student Union Fee Problem

  The student union fee is the optional fee of 8,000 won that comes along with the tuition. The total number of students and the fee are multiplied and given to the Student Council by the Student Service Center after several deliberations on the budget plan. For this semester, a total of 6,856 students paid up, which meant a total of 54 million won was to be given to the General Representative Council.

  However, several problems occurred during the deliberation meetings. The first problem was that meeting regulations of Budget Committee was not properly established. This led to problems in making decisions. Because there were no specific regulations on reaching into conclusions, the Student Council had a difficulty in making a deliberation. In the first meeting held on April 10th, every agenda was unanimously passed. The trouble occurred in the second meeting held after eight days. The arguments on dividing student union fee went on for several hours. No certain settlement could be made because each college had its own opinion. The Student Council suggested passing the agenda if two thirds of the party agreed, but the Student Council members of the Business College, Engineering College and College of Natural Science did not comply with the Student Council’s suggestion and left the meeting. The absence of detailed meeting regulations brought a discord among colleges.

  Even after two Budget Committees, there have been several Student Council Committees to divide student union fee. On May 19th, the 17^th Student Council Committee was held and the same situation was repeated again. Arguing on the ratio between basic reception and number-proportional reception, the two colleges, College of Social Science and College of Engineering could not narrow down their differences. The president of College of Social Science, Choi Gwang-baek, said, “I am not saying that I do not understand the situation of College of Engineering. However, basic reception should exist for public affair of student society.” Rebutting to Choi’s opinion, the president of College of Engineering, Kim Tae-young, said, “We have conceded our student union fee to other colleges for several years. Our stance is always the same. There should never be basic reception. Inversely, I would like to suggest an alternative of just differentiating the ratio among colleges.”

  While this collide does not seem to be done anytime soon, the president of General Girl Student Council, Choi Eun-mi, said, “As a president of central unit, I feel sorry to say that this problem has no appropriate solution for all. It should have been arranged long ago. We are just hurting each other without any progress. The current situation is exactly the same as when we first started discussing student union fee in January.” Kim Tae-hyun of Food Science and Biotechnology major expressed his concern by saying, “If the Student Council does not make a solution soon, students will not pay the student union fee for the next semester. The bad cycle will continue on.”

  The money that comes from each student’s pocket must be used for the welfare of students. The students will lose trust in every council if such problem occurs again. The Student Council is already losing trust due to other issues that outraged many students such as the booking bus problem for student reserve forces. What the Student Council must put first in their priority is earning the trust of students again.