In this blog post, I will look at the reality of student self-governing space in universities and ask whether the school should be held responsible for the lack of space.
These days, more and more courses are requiring students to work in teams through project-based learning. To give a small, personal example, out of the seven courses I’m taking this semester, five of them require at least one team-based activity. In addition to regular courses, students also participate in many activities that are carried out by large groups of people through academic societies and clubs. Seoul National University is composed of 16 colleges, and clubs that engage in activities that are not significantly affected by the characteristics of the department, such as bands and sports clubs, exist in each college or department, and there are also central clubs that target all members. Currently, there are 103 officially registered clubs in four divisions, with 24, 19, 25, and 35 members in each division. In addition, there are five clubs registered as affiliated clubs of the college, which amounts to more than 200 clubs, and the number is expected to be much higher in reality.
However, currently, only two buildings, the Student Union Building and the Dure Arts and Culture Center, out of the 180 buildings, are equipped with the necessary facilities to be used as student self-governing spaces for such activities (hereinafter referred to as “student miscellaneous activities”). Each college has a certain portion of the building allocated for club rooms, but this is only the case when the student council of the college actively requests the necessary space and makes adjustments on a regular basis. It is difficult to say that the conditions are still suitable for students to carry out extracurricular activities with peace of mind. The same is true for cases where meeting spaces are needed on an irregular but frequent basis, such as team meetings. It is not easy to find a place on campus to hold closed-door discussions for a long time, and even if you apply to use the space, the discussions can drag on and the students who have gathered to study are sometimes kicked out of the “classroom” when it gets late at night. This is expected to be due to the hassle of patrolling and the cost of operation.
Should the school authorities just sit back and let students solve all of this on their own? I believe that creating an environment that empowers students to grow into well-rounded individuals and develop themselves through constructive discussions and measures is in line with the educational purpose of the university, before any moral responsibility. In addition, today, more and more companies are looking for talents who not only have a wide range of knowledge about their major, but also have various leadership and team-based experience, and the types of talents they are looking for are becoming more diverse. I think that the curriculum, which is composed of a variety of liberal arts courses as well as team-based and off-campus activities, is part of the school’s policy to meet such demands of the times. There are also various competencies and qualities that cannot be developed with such a curriculum. Students are engaged in many activities on their own to grow and develop these. Therefore, I think it is necessary for schools to actively seek solutions together to create an environment where students can gain rich experiences and grow through extracurricular activities, as well as to increase the convenience and efficiency of team-based activities included in the curriculum.
To that end, let’s first look at the supply side of the problem. Is the current state of the buildings and architecture on the campus at a level that can never keep up with demand? As mentioned earlier, the Seoul National University Gwanak Campus consists of more than 180 buildings, including dormitories and research facilities. Among them, the space allocated for the self-governance, academic activities, and extracurricular activities of 17,000 undergraduate students is only two buildings, which is considered to be insufficient, even in absolute terms. Also, since I enrolled, I have never seen a day when there was no construction site on campus. New buildings were always being built, and even if the exterior was left untouched, there were several places where interior remodeling work was carried out. However, the number of buildings that are used for a relatively short period of time under the pretext of being a restaurant franchise or a research building that has the name of a company on it has increased significantly, while the number of buildings that are used for team-based activities that “students” really need, such as the SinYang Academic Hall and the Haedong Academic Hall, which were built using private funds, is relatively small.
I don’t want to argue that the solution is to build a new building for students, as the school’s discretion on how to allocate the construction budget is limited. Of course, looking at the current situation, I don’t think it’s an unreasonable request to use the budget to build a building for research or events to build a new building for students, which is significantly insufficient compared to demand. However, I believe that it is possible to meet some of the demand, even if it is difficult to meet the entire demand, by seeking operational efficiency without expanding the facilities.
First, it is necessary to integrate the reservation systems for each college, department, or building. Currently, each building is usually managed by college or department, and school facilities and special facilities are managed independently. However, the problem is that the classrooms that can be used autonomously in those buildings must be used by students belonging to the relevant college. This may seem like a natural measure if judged solely on the basis of convenience in management and the prevention of classroom damage due to indiscriminate use. However, first, there is a huge gap in the system that allows other university students to make reservations using their friends’ accounts online, and second, there is a lot of room for improvement in the system, considering that it is not reasonable to prevent students from studying or engaging in self-development activities because of the fear of being disturbed by the mess in the classroom.
The next step is to expand the scope of use. As a prerequisite, it would be more efficient to integrate and operate the reservation system, which would also increase the convenience of use. After that, it would be possible to resolve the issues of concern by allowing students to use the facilities of their choice without being restricted to their affiliated colleges and implementing a real-name system. By using the real name of the representative applicant, the responsibility for using the classroom will be clarified, and benefits such as account suspension for a certain period of time for bad users and extension of the available time for one-time use for good users will be provided, so that users can expect to clean up and dispose of garbage and preserve equipment after using the classroom.
Next, the scope of classrooms and sports facilities that are currently permitted for students to apply for by college will be expanded. For example, the seminar rooms on the 4th floor of Building 58 are assigned to graduate students, but are rarely used, and the situation is no different for the seminar rooms in Building 59, which undergraduate students are not eligible to apply for, even when looking at the reservation status. On the other hand, the reservation status and usage of seminar rooms for undergraduate students in Building 58 are full until the moment the doors are opened and forcibly closed. Where does the distrust of undergraduates’ usage patterns come from, and why are seminar rooms being used as a free-for-all? If the purpose is for a special target, priority for reservations should be given to the individual or group concerned, and any subsequent management issues can be managed through the aforementioned real-name system and incentive system.
It is also necessary to define the use of the classroom by dividing it into categories such as multimedia use, team meetings and gatherings, and exercise, and to allow students to apply for and use the classroom autonomously and easily during periods other than the time allotted for existing courses or pre-booked special reservations, so that there are no blind spots in the operation and management of the classroom. In other words, as mentioned earlier, it is necessary to expand the number of spaces that can be reserved for exclusive use, but it is also possible to use classrooms that are used as lecture halls as substitutes in the evening by changing their use. This would be the most realistic option as it would be difficult to expand the number of exclusive spaces in the short term. On the other hand, if each building has a lounge that can be used for other purposes, such as eating, it would be possible to reduce the problem of garbage and tidiness in the classrooms used.
Finally, in the long term, it is necessary to expand the space for student activities by constructing new buildings or changing the entire use of a building. Currently, clubs are sharing small spaces by dividing them into smaller spaces, which is not very effective and is used less frequently, resulting in a vicious cycle of supply leakage and demand dissatisfaction, such as being used only as simple storage space. While it is clear that having a coffee shop or a brand restaurant on campus brings benefits to students, both students and the school need to consider the opportunity costs that come with it. I think it would be relatively more valuable to use the space and building for team meetings, club or class meetings, or as a practice room for dancing or playing music.
There were many students who were chased out by the janitor or had to play around with him to extend their time after discussions that lasted until dawn, students who had to sit on newspapers on the floor of the music hall because there was no space to practice, and students who had to spend money outside of school to practice in a place where they could dance while looking at a full-length mirror. How much more relaxed and energetic would school life be if students could now hold lively and passionate discussions in a place where the internet is fast and they can share the contents of discussions on the wall with a board pen, practice without worrying about passersby by closing the door of the classroom, and practice comfortably in a practice room with mirrors even during the peak season before festivals and performances?
Buildings that are named research buildings but are used very little and are empty in the morning and after dinner are clearly the result of exhibition administration. The school authorities have a responsibility to come to the student union building and look with their eyes wide open to see what students really want and need. The student council has the responsibility to carefully review the voices of the students and put them into practice. We expect that the efficient and reasonable operation and expansion of the facilities will make campus life more exciting and vibrant in the future.
