Spring is a season of Membership Training (M.T.). However, there are some students who have expressed discontent with it. M.T. is supposed to be a formal event of each department to make a closer community. At some departments, however, absent students can be punished by penalty or exemption of scholarship. These bring about dissatisfaction. These conflicts require further examination, and we need to discuss about the various angles.
The aim of M.T. is to make students into a community. As a matter of fact, M.T. is different from an essential purpose. If you are a university student in Korea, you know that M.T. is a pleasure party for students. It isn’t necessary to pay the M.T. fee even if they don’t attend. To make students join M.T, many departments give penalties or exceptions from scholarships. These punishments can be a good method to make students join M.T.
However, they also violate students’ rights because there are no demonstrative punishments about being absent in school regulations. Also, pressure for participation is against the basic rules of democracy because it violates individual freedom. It is a tyranny of the majority because the majority excludes the minority from personal variety.
The point of view of the Student’s Association is that M.T. is an important event of each department. Therefore, it is natural for a student’s association to force students to participate, and punishing absent students is reasonable for them. Compelling students is breaking their rights. However, their absence demands that kind of penalty as they are members of a group. If they admit the freedom of individual students, the organization will break down.
Also, M.T. dues are not direct expenses. Those involve expenses of other events like teacher’s day and field day. Likewise, M.T. dues are paid for most annual events of each department. If a department collects dues for each event, it might be difficult to administer money. Also, it will give rise to financial confusion. Large communities have rules, and members must follow the rules. If someone does not obey the established rules, the punishment for that someone is fair.
M.T. should be changed for active participation rather than passive. The student’s associations should improve the quality of M.T. Also, students should actively participate in M.T. Both sides, effort to make a great M.T. and to create an effective atmosphere for M.T. is needed.