Starting in January 2020, Korea experienced an entire daily life change due to COVID-19 for two years. Universities were no exception. Starting with the spring semester of 2020, many universities replaced in-person classes with online classes to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and this online class system is continuing for some classes even now. Of course, COVID-19 is not over, but in the spring semester of 2022, Chung-Ang University (CAU) allowed in-person classes for laboratory classes, practical courses, graduate school classes, and lecture classes with fewer than 40 students[1]. The decision was based on the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s announcement that the vaccination rate was high, and the severity was low enough, due to the transformation of COVID-19 dominant variant into Omicron. Also, there was the Ministry of Education's announcement on January 7th that universities should conduct educational activities in-person from the first semester of 2022. However, even though two months have passed since the semester started, students at CAU are still complaining of discomfort about CAU’s insufficient preparation for in-person classes. CAU should flexibly respond to changes in the teaching system from online to in-person. Therefore, CAH would like to summarize the problems of insufficient in-person preparation at CAU this semester.
1. Seoul Campus Student Cafeteria Shortage Problem
CAU Seoul Campus has a total of four student cafeterias (building 303, building 308, building 309, and building 310). Before the outbreak of COVID-19, all four operated normally. However, as COVID-19 occurred and online classes were conducted, the school reduced the number of cafeterias operating. Starting with the suspension of the cafeterias operating in building 309 and building 303 in 2020, on January 31st, 2022, the operation of the 308 building cafeteria was ceased. Accordingly, from February 2022, only one of the four student cafeterias, building 310, is in operation. Student cafeterias in the school are operated through contracts with outsourced restaurant operators. The school said that the reason for the suspension of the cafeteria was the difference in position with the company. There were no major complaints from students before the spring semester was decided to have in-person classes. However, students started to complain that other student cafeterias except the 310 building are not being operated even though the in-person classes were confirmed in the spring semester. One article was posted on CAUin, the official student community of CAU with the title, "I'm inquiring about building 310 cafeteria." The article pointed out that since there is only one cafeteria that operates even though the number of students has increased sharply compared to before, so prevention of COVID-19 seems poor. Also, it took a very long time to order and eat due to the lack of cafeteria operators. In response, a person in charge of the building 310 cafeteria in the general affairs team acknowledged the shortage of manpower, and added “We are continuing efforts to recruit, and we are in talks with the company to operate the other cafeterias." However, the issue of operating a student cafeteria is closely related to students' school life. Therefore, it is imperative for CAU to prepare for further operation of other cafeterias to continue and expand in-person classes in the future.
2. Insufficient Information Notice on In-person Class
The notice of class operation for the spring semester was announced on January 28th, 2022. It was a little later than other universities located in Seoul, including Hanyang University (Jan 21st), Seoul National University (Jan 19th), Yonsei University (Jan 24th), and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (Jan 13th). In addition, the types of classes for each subject were announced on February 18th, after all the course registration was completed. Since most of the classes have been conducted online over the past two years, the notice was issued only about a month before the start of the semester did not consider students' academic plans. The bigger problem was after the start of the semester. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, CAU announced the COVID-19 related safety guidelines for students participating in in-person classes. However, the notice was only made on the CAU website. The school did not show an active attitude, such as sending text messages or displaying on an electronic board to share guidelines. The total number of COVID-19 confirmed undergraduate students from the start of the semester to April 4th has been 1,352 at Seoul Campus and 612 at Anseong Campus. However, because of insufficient notice, confirmed students who had not checked the CAU notice of COVID-19 guidelines were confused. In fact, in the student community Everytime, articles are posted several times a day such as who to inform when confirmed with COVID-19 and whether they can go to in-person classes even though they had contact with a person who was confirmed with COVID-19. It is information that can be immediately known by checking the notice of the in-person class guidelines, but students are confused because the notice was not properly delivered. For the safety of CAU, the school should minimize the inconvenience of students by delivering the most important announcements in an active manner such as by sending text messages.
3. Suspension of Shuttle Bus Operations at Anseong Campus
CAU has operated shuttle buses for Anseong Campus students commuting from various places such as Seoul and Gyeonggi-do. Prior to COVID-19, five school bus routes were operated in Anyang, Jamsil, Godeok, Bundang, and Banpo to help students commute to school. However, on February 24th, less than a week before the semester started, an article was posted on the CAUin notice that the Anseong Campus shuttle bus would be suspended. The contract period with the shuttle bus operator expired at the end of February, and open bidding was conducted. However, because of worsening management due to COVID-19, no companies participated in the bidding, and the operation was suspended. CAU left a message in an interview with CAH as normalization of the shuttle bus is also a pledge of Anseong Campus’ 64th Student council Light, they will try best to normalize the bus. Also CAU asked students to use public transportation for the time being. As a result, four routes of the Anseong campus shuttle bus are currently in operation: Anseong campus-Pyeongtaek station circulation, Anseong-Seoul Express Bus Terminal (Banpo), Anseong campus school shuttle bus, and Anseong-Seoul campus intersection bus. However, the students strongly opposed the decision. In CAUin, an article titled "We urge the operation of school buses according to the conversion of in-person classes" was written and received a lot of sympathy from students. The comments contained opinions from students, such as "Public transportation to Anseong Campus is not well established," and "Since the school bus is not operated, the express bus is often full, so I worry about whether I can make it to class on time." As of the writing of this article, April 5th, CAU has not issued additional notices about the operation of school buses. If the class type is announced and operated in-person, it is clear that the school bus should be implemented at the same level as the in-person operation. CAU needs to take a prompt action.
Students and CAU are also tired due to the prolong of COVID-19, which has been going on for more than two years. CAH understands that the school's policy and countermeasures are still insufficient because it is a sudden in-person transition after two years, but prompt action seems to be needed for the safety of all. CAH hopes that the spread of COVID-19 will decrease as soon as possible so that CAU can be the same lively school as it was in the past.
[1] At the discretion of the professor, lecture classes with more than 40 students may be also conducted in-person