UOS gave financial support for this year’s freshmen orientation camp, which was held on February 17th to 19th, on the condition that only a small amount of alcohol be allowed.
There has been a steady controversy between the school and the student council over the years. The school wants the camp to be alcohol-free, with few enrolled students except for freshmen. Contrary to the school’s opinion, the student council wants both the amount of alcohol and the portion of enrolled students to be unlimited. However, the university has a strong view on banning alcohol – for no accident to happen – which could lead to a similar conflict next year. In the worst case, the orientation camp could be managed only by the student council, without the school’s support.
The difference in ideas has been reflected in different aspects of the camp in the past two years. Last year, the UOS student council Close-up decided to have the camp without any of the school’s support, since they failed to reach an agreement with the school. This left a high fee for freshmen, and the deficit was covered by the student council’s own expenses. Also, due to the high camp fee, only a small number of freshmen joined it. To solve these problems, lots of talk has gone on between the school and the council. However, this year’s decision was wistful to students again, since it was literally an alcohol-free orientation.
After long negotiations, the camp was officially set to have no alcohol on the first day, and 500cc of beer per student on the second day. With this compromise, the fee was set to 70,000 won for senior students and 80,000 won for freshmen. Geon-ho Kim (School of Computer Science, ’15), the vice president of the student council of Computer Science, stated that this would be an important chance to show the school that freshmen orientation camp is not a dangerous event, but a meaningful and important event to happen every year.
By Moon-joo Lee