On November 30, the 34th KAIST Undergraduate Association (UA) General Election Committee announced the result of the general student election. KIND, standing for “KAIST IN Dynamic”, was elected as the new UA, led by President Dongjae Kang from the School of Business and Technology Management and Vice President Junghyeon Han from the Department of Chemistry after winning 88.93% of the votes (1671 out of 1879 votes). There have been concerns regarding the election results due to the very low voter turnout for the past three years, which resulted in the Emergency Response Council (ERC) standing in for the undergraduate student council. However, this year’s election was valid with the participation of more than half of those eligible to vote, and the normal UA system will be resumed next year.
The motto of KIND was to become “a student council that students can see and hear from, so that one can feel personally included”. In their election manifesto, they proposed a variety of goals under nine categories: academics, life/welfare, culture/events, communication, human rights/military service, international, governance, reorganization of the UA, and cooperation pledge. Their overarching themes mainly focused on improving students’ wellbeing and ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity in both academic and extracurricular activities.
What stood out the most was KIND’s attempts to recognize international students by creating a separate category in their election promise, “international”. According to their proposal, they have investigated difficulties international students have been facing and are willing to work to improve them. They plan to make KAIST international student-friendly through the expansion of clubs that welcome international students and Humanity/Leadership III classes taught in English. They also proposed to ensure that new international students adapt to KAIST as quickly as possible by refining the previous “buddy system” and hosting a conference with the school officials and international students regarding school policies.
One student believes that the election promises proposed by KIND are extremely significant. They look forward to KIND fulfilling all of them, especially sharing a past paper bank with all students and increasing the interaction between international and Korean students. They also stated, “Now that we are reaching the post COVID-19 era, I hope the next UA can carry out events and projects that could not be done due to social distancing.”