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Vol. 267, November 11, 2005
THE KAIST TIMES http://kaisttimes.com

"Twenties" Runs Uncontested Candidate for 20th Undergraduate Presidency

Campaigning began November 19th for Election on November 29th.
"Let us be owners of KAIST."

"Twenties" student council candidates Chan Park (left) and Sung-lim Cho (right).

By Joon Jeon
[Translated by Harrison Lee]
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
373 Guseong-dong, Yuseong-gu
Daejeon 305-711, Republic of Korea

November 29th is election day for the 20th KAIST student council president. The winner will represent undergraduate students for 2006.

However, only one candidate group, "Twenties" registered for the election. Their presidential and vice-presidential candidates are Chan Park (Computer Science, entrance year: 2003) and Sung-lim Cho (chemistry, entrance year: 2004). Both candidates were active members of the 18th and 19th student councils.

They began campaigning on November 19th and plan to continue through November 28th. They will also meet KAIST undergraduates on November 23rd at a policy debate hosted by the Central Election Commission.

Presidential candidate Park said, "Since starting to work in student council I have realized that someone needs to iron out the school problems. I will focus on the things student council didn't yet successfully accomplish, and advance them."

The "Twenties" are prepared for aggressive action to achieve the aim of their campaign slogan: "Let us be owners of KAIST."

Uncontested candidates may take office only if they receive at least 50% of the votes and at least 50% of KAIST students participate in the election.

Q&A with "Twenties" presidential candidate Chan Park

Times:

What is your motivation for running for the presidency?
Park:

I became active in the Student Council because I thought that someone had to iron out KAIST problems. Running for the presidency is one of those activities.
Times:

Are there any important changes in the student council you propose to make?
Park:

We propose to change the management philosophy. In the past we acted mainly to deliver student opinion to the Administration through public statements, petition campaigns and so forth. Now we also plan to empower students to organize at the grass roots. Student council activities traditionally have two goals: to engender student trust and to return the student council to students. We also subscribe to these goals.
Times:

How will you talk with the KAIST Administration?
Park:

We want the Administration to change its mindset and practices first. They should regard students not as needing direction but rather as essential for school management. We will continue to work to involve student council representatives in school management.
Times:

Aren't there a lot of social and political agendas in your policies?
Park:

We feel that university students should be interested in social issues. Our publicity activities reflect this feeling. We also intend to open a door for free opinion exchange, especially for straightfoward talk about social issues. We also wish to prepare Koreans for the new era of Korean peninsular unification and to help the "Korea University Union" speak with a unified voice.

[© 2005 KAIST. This work is distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons license. Permission is granted to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work in unaltered form, with attribution to KAIST, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved.]