The students of the University of Seoul (UOS) voted for the next year’s student president and vice president for five colleges in the election from November 29 to December 1. A total of seven candidate groups from five colleges registered in this election, but there were no candidates for the Student Council, the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Physical Education. By-election for these three vacancies may be held early next year in the spring semester. Until then, these departments will be run by acting councils which were elected by the current councils.

Unlike other colleges, the College of Business Administration and the College of Urban Science had multiple candidate groups, and historically it is a good sign to have a high turnout, according to our interview with the chairperson of the UOS Election Commission, Hyeok-gyu Choi (Dept. of English Language and Literature, ’15). “Looking back at our recent elections, when there are multiple candidates on paper, more voters come to the polling station, even more than the regulated lower turnout minimum of 40 percent of enrolled students.”

The election process of UOS is much fairer than some other universities. “The UOS student council’s election is far more legitimate and cleaner on both the campaign and voting process than other universities’,” Choi stated. “Yet, the voting rate of UOS is not that high, like today’s low turnout phenomena across universities, because of the busy life of the students,” he presumed.

“Working as a member of the student council and voting as a voter may seem irrelevant, with your academic activity and future career bigger priorities. However, the more interest comes from the voters, the more passion will come out from the ones who get elected. And a student council is volunteering work for the students, so it’s a meaningful job,” Chairperson Choi said. “So, I would like to ask your participation during the school’s election.”

By Jeong-ho Shin

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