Greetings again from Mason Korea Student Government! We hope you’ve had a splendid first month of the academic year, getting to know new student, faculty, and staff members in our community.
As we described in our previous email, welcoming all of you to Mason Korea and outlining what we’ve done so far in the Spring 2023 semester, we’ve been very hard at work to represent and advocate for our student’s body interests alongside our faculty and staff. While we hope to regularly update all of you by email throughout the semester, please note that all of our important resources can be found on our Student Government Linktree at https://linktr.ee/mksc, where you may find our Mason360 website which we plan to keep up-to-date and anonymous Suggestion Form if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions.
- Student ID Card Redesign Committee: We understand and realize that one of the most requested changes from our student body was a redesign of our Student ID Card. As such, we plan to recruit members from our community to work on redesigning the Student ID Card in the following weeks. We will continue to work with IGC Foundation to work out the logistics of getting this new ID Card by the Fall semester and hope to (re-)add IBK Check Card and International Student Identity Card options for students to choose from.
- Town Hall with Dean Matz: As a follow-up to our Town Hall meeting with Dean Matz on March 6, we again thank Mason Korea leadership for their continued support and engagement with some of the student body’s concerns. They have reassured us to continue working on improvements to be made in Mason Korea with appropriate parties, such as the addition of amenities in the Incheon Global Campus, adding new student resources, practices, academic programs, scholarships, and common spaces for students to use on-campus. We also realize that one of the biggest issues that students faced as with our biggest cohort to date is with IGC Housing, the application process, and FCU issue, and promise that we will work with the Office of University Life to create a better system to accommodate the different needs of our students.
- Roundtable Meeting with the Mayor of Incheon: On February 20, 2023, we attended a roundtable meeting with the Mayor of Incheon alongside Student Government leaders from universities within Incheon. We expressed our support for Incheon hosting the Overseas Korean Office (tentative name) and 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and understand that there are improvements to be made with our communication between the IGC Foundation.
- Major Meet-and-Greet Events: Our Major Representatives have been hard at work preparing and hosting meet-and-greet events for all students to participate in to connect with new peers and/or faculty members. As we gradually plan to have meet-and-greet events for every major, please make sure to advocate or thank your major representative when you see them around on-campus for past and future Major Meet-and-Greet events!
- Future Events Planning: We are continuing to work with various parties regarding any future events planned on-campus, such as the IGC Sports Day, Mason Day, and Mason Korea’s 10th Anniversary. We will let you know of the details for each event once they have been finalized.
- Campus Facilities and Recent Events: As we previously sent out in an email in February, it saddens us to hear some of our facilities on campus being disrespected. As a reminder, please respect the rules and guidelines for our common spaces such as the Student Lounge and remember that the Incheon Global Campus is a smoke-free campus. As for our recent incident regarding racial harassment on campus, we send our deepest apologies to the affected student(s) and strongly discourage and condemn any form of harassment here in Mason Korea. We promise to continue working with the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Task Force to ensure a healthy and equitable environment for all.
- Changes in Student Government: As with our transition from Student Council to Student Government, we are continuing to partner and work with Fairfax Student Government to create a Student Government that can fairly and accurately represent the needs of the entire student body. We thank our Associate Dean of University Life and the Office of University Life to continuing to work on such matters and hope to officially implement a committee-based structure with revised positions, Constitution, and Code very soon.
As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, feel free to let us know anytime.
Best regards,
Hyunwoo Jo
2023 Student Body President
George Mason University Korea
T: +82-32-626-5021 E: hjo6@gmu.edu
Strengths: Harmony, Input, Responsibility, Includer, and Maximizer
Incheon Global Campus 119-4 Songdomunhwa-ro, Yeonsu-gu Incheon, Korea 21985
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