Inhyangje, the fall festival of the University of Seoul (UOS),  was held on September26 and 27. This year, the fall festival has returned to the campus after three years. From club booths to food trucks, UOS’ campus was filled with people and joy. This semester, Inhyangje was organized by the Club Union with a theme inspired by a famous video game called  “Animal Crossing.” The booths, characters, games, and general concept were inspired by the game.
 

With a concept of promoting university clubs, Inhyangje offered many interesting experiences to try for everyone. One could try to dunk a basketball at the basketball club booth and then try to play some Korean traditional instruments at the traditional music booth. whereas some other booths such as the International Education Center gave Korean students a chance to meet with international students and vice versa.
 

The UOS Times interviewed Lee Yun-seok and Kim Ye-ji (both from the Dept. of  Urban Administration, ’20) to get to know students’ feelings about the festival, and they said:
Kim Ye-ji: I had so much fun thanks to the various activities that the clubs  prepared for us. I had a great time attending Inhyangje this semester.

Lee Yun-seok: Since I was not only a normal student but also a staff member during the event, making the festival fun and safe was our priority. I am glad to see Inhyangje took place without any problem just like the Daedongje festival we had last semester. We had a great time during the event and it was so nice to see our hard work pay off with this beautiful festival.

Inhyangje also gave a stage to UOS’ music clubs as well. Students sang and played various genres of music from indie to rock and rap, making campus a live concert scene. Everyone had a chance to listen to their favorite genres of music at the festival, which featured celebrities like Boramiyu and WH3N.

The UOS Times also interviewed another student, Donny Trong Vu (Dept. Korean Language and Literature, ‘22), who said: 

“Inhyangje was the first festival on school grounds with so many performances and acts that I was able to attend. It was really amazing to see Koreans and foreigners come together and enjoy the performances together. It was a really good organization to bring these communities together while offering so much fun. I spent my afternoon walking around the campus. I tried doing some taekwondo kicks at the taekwondo booth while also playing some board games. Not only myself but my stomach also enjoyed the festival too! I had the most incredible juicy chicken at the festival thanks to the food trucks. I thank everyone who organized this event!”

During the festival, the General Student Assembly was also conducted. It focused on unequal representation and minimum voting thresholds.

At UOS, every department used to have two representatives, namely the president and vice president, to represent their departments. However, this also meant that departments with lots of students would get the same number of representatives as the departments that had relatively fewer students would get. To tackle this issue, the Student Council decided to keep two representatives per department as the minimum number and adjusted the number of  representatives  by giving extra seats for departments that have a higher number of freshmen. This way, while also keeping the representative rights of departments with relatively few students, departments with a higher number of students also got the representation they needed.

Another proposal was the minimum vote threshold. During the presidential election, each and every student of UOS has a right to vote. However, to consider an election valid, 40 percent participation was necessary. This rendered several elections invalid and culminated in re-elections. To solve this problem, the threshold for making elections valid is lowered to 33 percent.

To fully understand these policies and changes, The UOS Times interviewed Student Council Policy Director, Kim In-hwan (Dept. International Relations, ‘19):

“We gathered here again after three years and  I am glad for the  attention it got from the students and to see bills get approved. These changes were discussed and planned by the student council delegates and then got approved in this huge event. That’s why I was very glad to see it. When we decide on new policies, we always think about the benefits that they can bring to everyone. Through these new assembly changes, we are trying to build a better place for everyone. The change about the representation will be effective starting from next year and by keeping a minimum two representatives per department rule, the minority departments’ representation will be secured. This new chance will only be a supplement to the current rule and we will work hard for a transaction without any problems.”

Thanks to the festival, happy faces were seen all over the campus whereas through the General Student Assembly, students had a chance to make UOS a better place. 

Yasin Özdemir   
yasinozdemir@uos.ac.kr