Chinese Students Visit Undergraduate Council To Draw Lessons About Student Government

Undergraduate Council members welcomed foreign visitors at Sunday’s general meeting as representatives from Chinese student governments came to draw lessons from the student governments of Harvard and other Ivy League universities.

The delegation, which consisted of eight student body presidents from top universities across China and two leaders from the All-China Students’ Federation—the body that represents all of the country’s university student governments—sat by quietly as UC representatives discussed topics ranging from student grant funding to the finalization of internal UC committee positions.

The Ivy Council, an organization made up of the student government leaders of the eight American Ivy League institutions, organized the visit as part of its Ivy-China U.S. Invitational Exchange initiative. The program consists of students from Ivy League universities traveling to China and students from Chinese student governments traveling to the United States at different points throughout the year.

According to C.C. Gong ’15, Currier House representative and Ivy Council vice president of external affairs, the Chinese delegation visited Brown University over the weekend and will visit Columbia later this week.

“To them its a great learning opportunity,” said Gong, who is an inactive Crimson editor.

Speaking through a translator in an interview after the meeting, a student leader in the All-China Students’ Federation said he was particularly impressed by “three features” of the UC: its transparency regarding money and funding, the equal opportunity for all members to speak at meetings, and the high-efficiency with which the meeting was run.

These features make the UC different from student governments in China, where, he said, leaders often speak for the entirety of meetings, preventing general membership from having a say.

But, he added, the fact that the Chinese government directly sponsors student leadership groups provides them with some advantages not found in the United States. Because of the setup, student governments have broadened access to technological resources and enjoy the benefit of certain decisions being carried out more swiftly and effectively than they would have without government sponsorship.

In addition to hosting the Chinese delegates, the UC unanimously approved the year’s first round of grants during the meeting, divvying out more than $24,000 in funding for events hosted by more than 50 student groups on campus.

—Staff writer Steven S. Lee can be reached at steven.lee@thecrimson.com Follow him on Twitter at @StevenSJLee.