[Special] 2024 DGU Election Hearing – Day3

   The public hearing for the November 2024 general election at Dongguk University Seoul Campus concluded on November 21st. The order of the final day was the same as the previous two days, with questions from the Election Committee, questions from the school media, and questions from the audience.

   The Dongguk Post's questions to today's candidates for the College of Arts and Sciences Student Council, the College of Law Student Council, and the College of Law Delegate Council Candidates 1 and 2 are listed below in order.

College of Natural Science Student Council Candidates

General Questions

1. What is your election platform?

- The goal of the College of Natural Science Student Council is to be more than just a member of the College of Natural Science, but to be the voice of the College of Natural Science, to communicate the opinions of the student body, and to ensure a vibrant student life by stepping up to any task. (Excerpted from the College of Natural Science Student Council Candidate's Policy Manual)

Questions from The Dongguk Post

Q1. Regarding your pledge to improve and maintain facilities, you have said that you will identify dangerous structures and facilities in buildings with many classes in the College of Natural Science and improve them. With many complaints about run-down facilities around Dongguk University, many of which have been left unrepaired for years, we would like to ask you if it is possible for the student government to improve and maintain the facilities on campus, and what are your specific plans?

- While there are limits to what the student council can do to improve and maintain school facilities, we will represent the voices of our students and try to improve them. In the case of dangerous structures and facilities, we will allow students to communicate with us and we will represent them to the school. We will organize a system of discussions in advance so that nothing is left unattended.

Q2. Regarding community service and volunteer commitments, we would like to know if you have specific examples of activities that would qualify for volunteer hours.

- We will be working with local officials as much as possible. It will be done in collaboration with other organizations such as the Farming Experience Center. We decided to make this pledge because it is a great way to give back and contribute to the community, and there are a lot of organizations out there, so we thought it should not be too hard to do.

College of Law Student Council Candidates 

General Questions

1. What is your election platform?

- We, Sagye ("four seasons" in Korean) will accompany students through all four seasons throughout the year. As members of this year's Student Council, we have been with the College of Law for 2024. This has led to our determination to dream and do our best for the future of Dongguk University College of Law. We promise to be there for the students of the College of Law for all four seasons of 2025. We want to make sure that students feel the value of the student council's existence during all four seasons.

2. What are your main pledges?

- First, we will promote academic exchanges with departments of other universities, so that students who are studying the same major at different universities can develop mutually.

- Second, we will improve the late-night snack program. We recognize that many students are unable to participate in the late-night snack program even though they have paid student fees, so we will expand the program to include both online and offline operations so that more students can receive late-night snacks. 

- Third, we will open a hotline for communication. We will actively listen to the voices of academies by providing a means of communication to directly contact the student presidents.

Questions from The Dongguk Post

Q1. Regarding the production of the new student guidebook, for academic guidance such as curriculum, Dongguk University's official academic completion guide exists, and for matters related to university life, it is known that freshman orientations are already conducted at the department level. We would like to know how the new student guidebook you are planning to produce differs from these.

- The Freshman Guidebook will consist of an organizational chart of the student governing bodies and a guide to the overall schedule and activities that will take place in the future. The freshman guidebook will be distributed as a PDF file attached to a link in our Instagram profile. From a freshman's point of view, we thought that it is necessary to know how organizations are connected, what role the student council plays and how it is organized, and what activities will be held in the future. For these reasons, we think that the freshman guidebook can be very helpful in adapting to the system quickly, such as the orientation and the academic completion guide provided by Dongguk University, which is insufficient to convey all information due to time constraints.

Q2. Regarding the pledge to improve the water pressure and hygiene in the Law Building restrooms, we would like to ask if the water pressure and hygiene issues are something that can realistically be solved by the student council and what are the specific plans.

- We have not had any prior discussions with the school about improving the hygiene of the restrooms in the Law Building. However, we have heard complaints about the restrooms in the Law Building from both the students and the general faculty. Therefore, we plan to actively raise this issue through an official request. We believe that direct problems in the school, such as water pressure and hygiene in the restrooms, can be resolved more quickly if students take an interest in them, and we are aware that this has been an ongoing issue with the school authorities. Also, as the previous year's student council pledge to improve the Wi-Fi and printers in the law building was implemented by submitting an official request, we believe that these issues will be resolved more quickly if we collectively raise our voices in the name of the law student council and hand in an official request in demand that they be resolved.

Q3. In your previous answer, you mentioned that an official request by the student council will be made. We are wondering what you think are the priority areas of sanitation in the law building restrooms that need to be improved.

- First of all, there are two main problems we heard about the restrooms in the law department: sanitation and water pressure. I think the most essential problem is water pressure. As those of you who have used the law building know, the water pressure is very weak on the third floor of the law library. This issue is very inconvenient for students, and I think this water pressure should be the first priority to be improved. 

- In terms of hygiene, the building itself is old, so basically, there are a lot of problems with overall hygiene, and we are aware that the floors in particular get very dirty because they are not cleaned, especially on weekends during exam periods. So, we would like to prioritize water pressure first, and then the overall hygiene of the restrooms in the building.

College of Law Representative Council Candidate #1 

General Questions

1. What is your election platform?

- Our campaign slogan is 'Where ALL stay IN', which sums up our guiding principle, emphasizing the collaborative nature of building together.

2. What are your main pledges?

- As I mentioned earlier, we have three main campaign promises that emphasize collaboration: creating a mechanism for legislative proposals, actively promoting student communication, and decentralizing the Representative Council.

Questions from The Dongguk Post

Q1. Regarding your pledge to improve the efficiency of the council, we would like to ask you if you encountered any problems that reduced the efficiency of your work during your year in the Representative council, and if you encounter the same problem while running the council, how do you plan to deal with it?

- First of all, I realized that there was a lack of division of labor in the College of Law Representative Council shortly after it was established. I also felt that the vacancy of the Vice Chair was a big loss of manpower for the council, and felt it was a big risk to the operation of the Representative Council of the College of Law. Therefore, I proposed a division of labor for the to improve the efficiency of the work as stated in my campaign

Q2. Regarding your overall pledges, we have noticed that none of the promises in your Policy Manual reveal specific plans. Would you be willing to share more specific plans as you campaign?

- We recognize that our platform may seem a bit abstract, and we want to make sure that you know that we have specific plans. And we'll be happy to share more specific plans as we go through the campaign, as needed.

Q3. You mentioned that you would like to receive legislative suggestions via a google/naver form. We assume that there would need to be a way to authenticate that the student is from the College of Law, while still ensuring anonymity. Do you have any specific plans for this?

- I think that's something that we haven't thought about, and I think that's something that we've missed. I think that's something that we'll have to discuss further as we implement this pledge if we're elected. We'll have to think about that a little bit more.

College of Law Representative Council Candidate #2

General Questions

1. What is your election platform?

- The guiding principle is to lead the College of Law without taking sides. In foreign countries, they put a blindfold on the statue of the Statue of Justice to focus more on who is speaking and what is being said.

2. What are your main pledges?

- As I mentioned earlier, we have three main campaign promises that emphasize collaboration: creating a mechanism for legislative proposals, actively promoting student communication, and decentralizing the Representative Council.

Questions from The Dongguk Post

Q1. You have stated that you will put in place contingency plans to prevent unrestricted executive power in the event that an outsider takes over the student government, and I would like to ask you if you have encountered such problems in the past and what your contingency plans are.

- In fact, concerns about overlapping positions have been raised consistently. According to a report by Dongguk University Newspaper in September, the Dongguk University General Student Council has been non-executive since 2022, and the highest legislative body on campus has been in charge of budget execution. This violates the principle of separation of powers and may reduce the transparency of audits. 

- I think that in order to highlight the persuasive power and legitimacy of the student society, while considering the efficiency of the work that the non-executive director ultimately wants to have and minimizing the gap, something should be added to Article 9, Section 1 of the Enforcement Rules on the composition of the non-executive director, explicitly stating that the non-executive director is excluded from the audit area if he/she holds a position in another borough. I think that if we show a good example like this, many colleges and universities will reflect it in their bylaws, which will help the student society gain persuasive power and legitimacy in their actions.

Q2. You are running as a single chair candidate without a vice chair candidate, and we would like to ask you how you plan to organize the council.

- I understand the concerns, but I think that's what sets my strategy apart.

- First, clear vision and focus. By running alone, I can present a clearer and more specific vision. I have the advantage of being able to take responsibility for all of my policies and present them confidently, whereas with multiple candidates, opinions can be scattered. My vision is clear and consistent, and I believe this gives me more credibility with my fellow students.

- Second, accountability. As the sole owner, I am determined to be accountable for every decision I make. I will be responsible for all policies and directions that I set forth, and I believe that this makes me a more trustworthy and consistent leader.

- Finally, third is the importance of communication and collaboration. As I do not have a running mate, I intend to collect diverse and direct opinions through bulletin boards and meetings, and strengthen communication with students through cooperation. In the end, I believe that running alone is an expression of confidence in leadership and politics, and an opportunity to take responsibility and show students the best choice.

Kim Bo-young, Editor-in-Chief

Ku Ji-won, Post Reporter