Over the past few years, students of Chung-Ang University have had frustrations over several problems they faced repeatedly. Also Chung-Ang University is struggling from different problems occurring in various ways. The problems that are happening frequently and also had been complained about in the past still have not been resolved. The school environment should be reformed as it is a place where students spend most of their day. Let’s look through the issues that students consider uncomfortable with CAH!

 Educational Environment

a. The Poor Environment of Seorabeol Hall

 Seorabeol Hall (Building 203) is the building for students majoring in the humanities and education. The students have been requesting the environment improvement as they felt dissatisfaction towards the building. First, the building was built in 1961. It is so old, students it is inevitable to face quality derogation comparing to other buildings. Even some parts of the building actually were remodeled just a couple years ago, but that really was only just a surface construction. It didn’t seem to fix many of the bigger issues that result from extreme obsolescence. For example, when it rains, raindrops often leak from the roof. School only claim for planning the construction in a near future; however, no action has occurred. Additionally, in Seorabeol Hall, bathrooms are on every other floor. Female students should use the odd numbered floors and male students should use an even numbered floor. This inconvenience has been a stress to students for a long time because they face difficulty when the classrooms are far from the bathroom.

b. The Inadequate Study Environment of the Library

 Central library is a place to study and take out books. However, students go through various inconveniences in this place. They feel the library’s atmosphere is not in a good state. Since there are a lot of people using the library, the scents of people all mix which creates an unpleasant smell as the library does not have adequate ventilation. Also, the quality of the atmosphere is unsatisfying. For these reasons, students could not but agree at the opinion of “school library is like ‘chicken coop’ during exam period.” Despite the efforts of electric heat exchanger and air purifiers, students furrow their eyebrows due to the unknown odors.

 Furthermore, the library doesn’t effectively operate sanctions toward violating the regulatory matters. For example, there are laptop spaces on the second and third floors of the library. What causes issues is that there are students who use a loud mouse or use their laptops without a keyboard cover. The two actions are all against the rules, and the access of using the library could be banned if the person breaks the rules three times. However, the manager of the library or administrators do not check the laptop room or don’t impose serious sanctions on the actions. The other students are victims who must deal with the disturbances. In order to improve the public environment that many students use, the school must come up with an effective solution.

Food Problems

a. Cafeteria Problems in 310 building (Centennial Hall)

 The school cafeteria located in Centennial Hall has four corners of food serving; Home Cook where you can have a normal lunch, Ramen and Salad, where you can have ramen, Special Taste, where you can have a special lunch, and Grill Corner where you can have a grilled food. The cafeteria operates a kiosk to allow people to conveniently order food from an electrical device. However, it is in the food ordering process where the problems occur. There are four kiosks in front of the cafeteria, and people can order general meals from three of them. The other kiosk, however, is only for the ramen corner. People can only use one kiosk to order ramen, and this is where they question about the effectiveness of the kiosks. As you enter the cafeteria zone, you can see a long waiting line at the other three kiosks while there are few people in front of the ramen kiosk.

 Apart from the waiting line, there are opinions about the ineffectiveness of the human traffic line. When people go into the fourth basement floor, they can see the long and complicated waiting lines of people in front of the kiosks. And when they finally get to go into the cafeteria, they can see a line to get Korean food, a lunch menu that varies every day, a line for special menu, and lastly, the longest line to return trays. Every day, people get stress from the confusion of the waiting line and near indefinite waiting time. Choi, a freshman in economics suggested that the tray returning line should be improved, and the most significant cause of the confusion is the operating hours of the cafeteria. Furthermore, she suggested to open the cafeteria at 10 a.m. in order to ease the confusion.

b. Struggling Shortage of Part-time Workers at Restaurants in 310 Building

 In the fourth basement floor of 310 building, there are numerous fooderies, including, CAU burger, 310 Rice Noodle, Seven-Eleven, and Tous Les Jours. Since students should wait at least for 30 minutes in the school cafeteria at lunch time, those who have little time between classes must think of other choices. However, these restaurants or convenient stores are not considered effective due to the lack of part-time workers. There are a lot of people needing food, but there aren’t enough human resources. In ‘Cheong-Ryong Square’ where students can make suggestions and address problems in school, the bulletins were often shown related to the inefficient part-time workers in the school restaurant. Specifically, an article written in September 2022 with the title of “Related to CAU Burger…” showed the complaint about the continuously increasing receipts at the counter and never decreasing waiting time. It requested the enhancement of CAU burger staffing. CAU burger, which was originally popular due to its low prices, has become more popular as face-to-face classes resumed. As more people visit the restaurant, people are claiming that CAU burger needs to hire more workers as part-timers. In fact, between 12:00 and 13:30, the fourth basement floor of Building 310 is crowded with people who came to eat lunch. People visiting each restaurant all have to wait. As the number of people visiting each restaurant increases, it is necessary to mobilize staffing accordingly.

c. Food Waste Disposal Problem

 During the vacant time in-between classes, students usually go to student council or club rooms to spend time having a meal together or drinking coffee. However, school don’t have an orderly way to dispose the food waste. In the case of beverage, students can throw the leftover away after school installed the disposal space next to the recycling bins. However, this disposal means is considered not clean in that there is no lid over the beverage outlet. If it is a food product it’s even worse. It is confusing for students to throw it away in the toilet, or the general trash can. The trash compiled over the recycling bin ruins the atmosphere. After conducting an interview with freshman of English Language and Literature, CAH could find out the specific struggling points of students. She said she has trouble in disposing delivered food. Furthermore, the leftover side dish or solid food such as pickles or tteokbokki are should not be throws away in any trash can. The stinky atmosphere created by the food waste distresses students who use the space or others who visit our school.

Various problems gradually seeped into CAU, where students spend most of their time. In the moment, when students have to stay with inconveniences and issues of educational environment, the school needs to improve the school by effectively managing the buildings and resolutely regulating the sanctions.