Communication with the President of YU: Student Participation Needed

2011-08-31 asdf

Many students want to have direct talks with the president of our university. However, it has proven difficult to make this happen. Yeungnam University initiated a program called “Talk with the president of the university” in order to create opportunities for direct talks with the YU's president. This program was not created to solve specific problems like those established at Seoul National University and KAIST. It is meant to facilitate two way communications between the president and students, so he can listen to the students’ opinions.
Hyo-Soo Lee, the president of Yeungnam University, held three of these sessions during the spring semester of 2011. He spoke directly with students twice. He answered questions and had straightforward discussions with students. Moreover he stated that he wanted to speak more frequently with students.
However, this program leaves some things to be desired. First, contrary to YU’s expectations, student participation has been low. For example, around 80 students participated in the first session which was well short of the 100 plus students the university expected, and the third session was attended mainly by faculty, not by students.
Programs like these are only effective when the students take the time to express their concerns. Although this program seems to have good intentions, those good intentions will not get us far if we do not show an appropriate level of interest. YNO would like to encourage all YU students to get involved and make time to talk to the president of our university.