WHAT’S YOUR idea of a “dream campus”? Despite the variety of buildings and facilities already in place on the two campuses of Yonsei University, students still face difficulties and inconveniences due to the lack of facilities meeting their needs. In this month’s Voice on Campus, The Yonsei Annals asked several Yonsei students about the facilities or buildings they would like to see built on the Sinchon and Songdo campuses in hope of identifying ideas that would make life on campus more pleasant and efficient.

 

Yoon Da-hye (Soph., Korean Culture and Commerce)

   I wish there were more cafés. Considering the size of our school, I do not think there are enough spaces to relax or chat with friends. There are plenty of cafés outside of school but the distance is too far to go back and forth between classes. You can see how much the students need a place to relax if you just see the new cafés under Baekyang-ro. The cafés are always packed and people wait in long lines to order a menu or get a seat. I went to one of the cafés under Baekyang-ro yesterday and had to wait about 20 minutes in line and 35 minutes to receive my bagel and coffee. An hour went by without any time to relax, and I had to go to my next class. I hope there are more cafés in the campus in order to be able to relax on a daily basis.

 

Jung Jae-woo (Soph., Dept. of Electrical & Electronic Engin.)

   I wish there were better showering facilities at Sinchon Campus. It is uncomfortable sharing the small shower rooms with many people at the Student Union Building. I always have to either wait in line for other people to finish or search for other places to take a shower. It is especially inconvenient when students pull all-nighters during the exam week and the shower rooms become very congested.

   Moreover, since I am an engineering student I wish there were a few workshops at Sinchon Campus to work on craftsmanship. The Engineering Hall closes at 10 p.m.—and after 10, engineering students do not have a place (on campus) to work on soldering.

Ko Hyun-chang (Jr., Dept. of Political Science & Int. Studies)

   I have a few facilities that I’d like on Sinchon Campus, including an indoor badminton court, rooms for student clubs, and rest areas. For an indoor badminton court, I do not mean one specifically for athletes but one that all students can use, regardless of their athletic background. Badminton courts with all the necessary facilities are hard to find in Korea in general, so there are not many places to practice.

   I also think there’s an urgent need for more rooms that student clubs can use. For larger-scale clubs, most of them now have their own rooms at the newly renovated Student Union Building. However, for smaller clubs, the number of rooms is insufficient. For example, there are more than 10 clubs within the College of Social Sciences, but only three rooms for clubs in Yeonhui Hall. A lot of clubs are experiencing difficulties, as they have nowhere to keep their items and possessions.

 

Ko Yeh-hee (Fresh., Dept. of Applied Statistics)

   I would like it if there were a space where people can be alone. Often, a quiet and private place is needed to make long phone calls. Usually, I cannot have long calls in my room because of my roommate; even when I go to a café, it is hard to have a quiet conversation because of the surrounding noise. So with little choice, I have to stand in the middle of the dormitory hall when I have a conversation over the phone. I can see other people doing the same whenever I walk down the hallways. Even though YIC is large and has plenty of empty spaces, I feel as if there is no place where I can stay alone comfortably. Everybody needs a break and time to reflect on themselves. If there were a place where I could relax and think by myself at YIC, I would use it frequently, even during a busy time of the day.

 

Han Jung-yoong (Soph., International Commerce)

   I wish there was an underpass that would connect dormitory 1 and dormitory 2 at YIC. The two dormitory buildings are located at the far ends of the campus. A lot of people have to go back and forth between the two dormitories to do group projects and club activities, and a lot of these activities continue until dawn, after the dormitory curfew hour. Also, since it is cold these days, it is almost painful to walk across the campus from dormitory 1 to dormitory 2. It would be a lot more convenient to have an underpass so that students would not have to suffer from the cold. The underpass would also help a lot when it rains in Songdo. Additionally, when students usually come back from Sinchon late at night, the bus from Sinchon drops the students off near dormitory 1. It is sometimes scary to go across the campus to dormitory 2 at night—the underpass would be convenient for a lot of students in this respect as well.

 

Park Jin-a (Jr., Dept. of Education)

   For Songdo, I think it is critical to have more gwa-bang, the rooms that students from the same major can freely use. There is not much space for students from each major to gather and spend time. Since there are not enough rooms to study at YIC, gwa-bangs could provide free space to study and plan group projects, too.

   Another commodity that would be useful would be more printing facilities in dormitory 1. Even though there is a multimedia room, which students can use for printing, not all the computers work, and there are times when I have to wait for a long time because of the students waiting to print. There used to be a Bonttul-saem in the dormitory but it was moved to the Underwood Memorial Library, making it inconvenient for students living in dormitory 1.