Nayan Kalita, a senior majoring in Electrical Engineering and former vice president of KISA at the beginning of this semester, was appointed president after the former president left his post for personal reasons. Beginning his term in a very turbulent period, he managed to lead KISA through some small incidents and also successfully organized the KAIST International Food Festival with the support of IRT. The KAIST Herald interviewed him about his impressions and aspirations as KISA president.

There was some tension during the last month, coincidently right after you entered the job. How did you feel during your first weeks as president?
At first everybody was concerned because we didn’t have clear information concerning the changes and procedures taken by students and school authorities, and also on the tension revolving around English lectures. Most international students were confused and highly concerned and were willing to express their opinions. Since any action taken by a foreigner usually impacts the image of all the international community, we tried to make sure that people took care to avoid any public manifestations. The lack of information was the main problem. The common feeling was that the international students were not taken into account when finalizing the proposal of changes in school policies. We worked together with the Undergraduate Student Council (USC) to get more information available in English, especially during the emergency student council. Our main goal was to ensure that the policy changes are good for both Koreans and international students, and we believe we succeeded in that task.

How is the relationship between KISA and the Undergraduate Student Council after these happenings?
Unfortunately we do not communicate regularly, but we are trying to participate in their meetings. The fact that the meetings are held in Korean makes it difficult for us, but we are willing to send at least a Korean representative or perhaps a spokesperson to know which decisions and discussions are being made regarding undergraduate students at these meetings. Another difficulty is that KISA is not officially a student organization; it is not in KAIST’s constitution, but we are trying to obtain an official status. Having said that, it becomes a little harder for us to get included in meetings like those for changing the university policies, but USC has told us that they are also trying to find a way to include us and open a better communication channel. We are hoping for more cooperation from them.

What are your impressions about the international community at KAIST?
Of course the language is a big barrier. Most of the international students would like to participate more in the student events which are mainly held in Korean. But I believe that while the Koreans could be more open, the foreigners should also try to join the Koreans and be more open to their fellow students as well. We at KISA are trying to remove the image of our events as being only for foreigners. Our plan is to make more joint events with Korean student associations to promote those changes and we are also trying to advertise our events and spread the KISA news in both languages in an effort to minimize the distance between the Korean and international communities.

What are your current plans for the next seven months of your term?
We are looking to hold joint events with USC or the Graduate School Council, perhaps an end-of-semester party later this month. During the summer we will hold a trip to locations outside of Daejeon and for the Fall semester we will have the sports festival, which is open to everybody, perhaps the second edition of the Halloween party and a Korean language exchange program in which an international student will teach English to a Korean fellow student and in exchange will learn some Korean.

Any last words for your fellow students?
Our main goal is to help all foreign students in KAIST with their school-related problems, provide more opportunities for a better social life in KAIST, make a better socio-cultural connection between Korean and foreign students and convey their voice to school authorities. I believe KISA will always get great support from all students. I will greatly appreciate any kind of suggestion to KISA from all international students. Taking advantage of this opportunity I would like to thank all the KISA cabinet members for their time and hard work for KISA.