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| THE KAIST TIMES http://kaisttimes.com | |||||||
The council obviously represents students. It can only do this effectively if the students and the Council understand each other well. Student Knowledge of Council Activities. What Do Students Think?
KAIST Times asked the 168 students' opinion to find the answer on November 18th. Let's check what student think of their Student Council by means of an opinion poll.
Interest in the Undergraduate Student Council has been revealed to be embarrassingly low.
To question Number 1 - "How much do you know about the business of undergraduate student body?" - the most frequent answer was "Some." The fractions responding "A lot" and "Nothing" were both 28%. Even though 28% is higher than the fraction of students actively participating in Council activities, it is troubling that only 1/4 of the students are very aware of the organization. This is especially true given the small size of the campus. The weak public visibility shows student indifference.
However, although students aren't that familiar with the organization, most of them view it as necessary. To question Number 2 - "Do you think undergraduate student body is necessary? - 96% students responded "Yes."
Students' interest for the next student council election was relatively high. To question Number 3 - "Will you vote in next election?" - 61% answered, "I am interested and will participate." The second most popular answer was, "I'm interested but will not vote." If we combine the two, we find that 86% students showed a strong interest in voting. This number is higher at KAIST than it is at other schools.
Of course, there is still a problem: 1/3 of the students who planned to vote answered, "We aren't interested but will vote anyway."
The council remade its homepage this autumn. The council now updates its business activities in real time, and routinely renews the page, e.g. by uploading new pictures. The council has also promoted its activities on a large scale using placards.
However, to question Number 6 -"Have you ever visited the homepage? - only 52% students said, "Yes." Obviously, students who don't access the internet don't get any of this information.
And to question number 7 - "Where do you lodge grievances?" - Only 11% selected "Undergraduate Student Council". Why so low? The answer is that the Council didn't represent students' opinions well. To question Number 4 - "Do you think that undergraduate student Council represents you well?" - the response was evenly split with 53% "No" and 57% "Yes." To question Number 9 - "Which activities should be promoted by undergraduate student body?" - many students wrote in their essay-style answer that their views should be better represented.
Thus, in the final analysis, it appears that students think the first mission of the Council is to represent their views but don't trust the Council to speak for them.
To question Number 8 - "What did the Council do especially well this year?"- 50% students said "Plan Events." Only 28% answered "Represent Students". This implies that students view the Council mainly as an "event agency".
Surely, every student's opinion can't be the same. But if more than 50% students think that the council doesn't represent them well, then the Council's procedures for decision making and polling student opinion must be deeply flawed. The cure might be to require the Council to answer the questions "How did you listen to student views?" and "How did you deliberate inside the Council?" whenever it expresses an opinion about a sensitive matter.
There's an old saying say if expectations are big, disappointments are big too. Now, students agree that the Council is indispensable and that it's an organization that requires their attention. Its poor representation of their opinions is therefore extremely disappointing.
In a month, a new Arrangement Committee will be organized. We hope that it enables the Council to improve at listening and speaking on behalf of students.
[© 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.]