AFTER ITS victory in the 56th General Student Council election held online in November, Switch has come under fire concerning the viability of its policies. It has been a rocky start, even from the election period; A day before the election, the only alternative candidate party, Maker, was unexpectedly disqualified. Furthermore, low voter turnout until the last day of the original voting period forced the Central Election Committee to extend voting by one day. Switch was ultimately officially announced as the 56th General Student Council of Yonsei by winning 7,649 votes, 84.39% of the total votes.

Switch’s proposals for 2021 

   Switch presented a variety of new proposals for the Yonsei community. Switch's proposal can largely be categorized into six categories: COVID-19 countermeasures, protection of educational rights, better communication, campus life and student welfare, monetary issues, and dealing with problems of individual colleges. 

   The current proposals are the product of multiple amendments suggested by the Central Election Committee; 29 out of the initial 83 policy proposals were suspected of falsification. However, despite modifications, the newly elected Student Council’s policies are still facing criticism for their infeasibility.

Switch's proposals: feasible or not

   We will evaluate the newly elected Student Council’s policies based on specificity, achievability, and timeliness. Moreover, the consideration of past Student Council’s failures and Switch’s accommodations to them should provide a more informed perspective on the feasibility of Switch’s proposals. 

   At the time of this writing, Switch’s promise to improve communication between students shows the most promise, based on the concrete and actionable steps announced to students. Switch has already conducted its first monthly briefing called “Switch on air” on January 23, where it shared its recent achievements and answered students’ questions. It also held the Yonsei General Student Council orientation on February 1. Additionally, Switch created communication channels to receive students’ opinions regarding issues like the utilization of Woo-jung-won as a Life Treatment Center. A Yonsei student commended Switch’s attempt and acknowledged how Switch “is trying their best to communicate with students despite the COVID-19 situation.” 

   However, Switch did not demonstrate the same amount of specificity or proactive stance when it came to COVID-19 countermeasures. Apart from its promise to begin conversation with the school, no detailed plans have been put forth. 

   Switch had originally promised students that it would work with the school to designate last fall semester as a disaster crisis semester, a difficult goal considering the Office of Academic affair’s firm resistance so far. However, it has done little to achieve this end. Based on the previous monthly briefing, it seems likely that Switch will simply wait for the school to respond to its meeting request with the Consultative Institution for Academic Affairs. Similarly, updates about the International Campus COVID-19 Task Force Team have been non-existent. The General Student Council has yet to inform students about even the timeline for this project.

   This vagueness underlies many of Switch’s other policies, an issue which has not gone unnoticed by student observers. A junior in the Department of Economics, mentioned that the “plans for the Co-op delivery system are far from being specific despite its complexity,” which makes him more doubtful of Switch’s other proposals. He suggested Switch be more transparent about the challenges it is facing and give consistent updates on its progress.

   Second, Switch’s ambitious monetary policies, namely the elimination of admission fee and partial tuition fee refund are mostly rhetoric. While Switch has further promised to meet with the Tuition Deliberation Committee and create a subcommittee to discuss the details of the pending 2020 settlement, negotiations for a partial tuition fee refund are likely to be unsuccessful considering the scale of the refund which is much larger than COVID-19 Special Scholarship given last semester. Switch also promised that it would decrease the school’s relatively high seasonal semester tuition. However, the Office of Academic Affairs has already addressed the issue back in 2015—citing the fact that the seasonal semesters are 50% cheaper than regular semesters, thus making further reduction impossible[1]. Likewise, its promise to abolish student dormitory curfew is one which has been repeatedly unsuccessful during at least the two previous student council terms; for some reason, this policy has found its way back on the campaign policy yet again. 

   Switch also proposed to tackle the issues of individual colleges such as the absence of an elevator in the Billingsley Hall and the high tuition fee of UIC. These proposals came with little elaboration on any further arrangements. Such changes require considerable budget reallocation, meaning that agreements cannot practically be made within Switch’s one-year term. In response to concerns regarding feasibility, Switch underscored the current Facility Safety Department[2]’s collaboration with Student Councils of each college that is in progress. At the moment, Switch's chances of following-up on such complex, high-budget proposals seem narrow. 

   Switch is evidently in need of a pragmatic game plan.  In response to many of our questions, Switch constantly reiterated its determination to “work hard in order to make [student’s] voices heard by the school.” Switch has continuously emphasized its hopes to “change and light up the daily lives of Yonsei people[3],” and its wide-ranging campaign promises are evidence of their effort. There is no doubt that our fellow students in the General Student Council are some of the most hardworking and empathetic individuals on campus. Also, it is likely too early to conclusively any of their performance. Yet with the semester beginning, the time for the fluff and grand rhetoric is over. As with past student councils, the incumbent party will be judged by their achievements, not words or intentions. 

   There has been plenty of cynicism surrounding the school administration and student council in the past year. Switch has the opportunity to restore some faith in student governance this year and bring together the members of this community. It is prime time that the new student representative realigns itself and starts focusing on the realization of its vision. Switch will surely have to meet the expectations of Yonsei students in spring. In order to keep Switch on the right track, student attentiveness and presence is paramount in the upcoming semester.

[1]Yonsei Chunchu

[2] Department under Switch that deal with school facility problems

[3] Switch Facebook page