As a new semester begins, the university campus is full of energy from its students. Some students are running along the streets on campus so that they will not be late for their classes, and cafeterias are crowded. We can see club posters attached in conspicuous places to recruit new members. It is good that the new term starts on an energetic campus again after the quiet vacation. Now it is time to think about our campus on which nothing has been improved to make it better. The Chonnam Tribune examines our current campus environment focusing on three sections: green campus, clean campus and sharing campus.
Green Campus: Huge Park in the Center of the City
If you step onto the campus, you can feel nature being green in color which is the official color of Chonnam National University (CNU). Local citizens enjoy a quiet afternoon on the grass around the Main Stadium seeing big trees, and CNU students sit freely on the verdant lawns of Bongji Fountain. One of the citizens walking down Gwanhyunro, Dawn Redwood road leading from Main Gate to Yongbong Tower, said that the campus is close to her house so she can easily come and enjoy nature.
Like this, many people can play sports, exercise, such as a walking, be absorbed in thought and have some rest by just sitting on the grass on the green campus. It is as if we are in the huge ‘park’ in the center of a city. Specifically, there are some places with lots of trees and flowers in the vicinity of the Agriculture and Biosciences College buildings. But since the places including the CNU Arboretum and Kitchen Garden are on the outskirts of campus, few students know where they are. Kim Yoon-jee (Freshman, Division of Applied Bioscience and Biotechnology) was surprised that her friends having different majors from hers did not know where the arboretum is. “I hope more people visit and find out how beautiful it is.“
However, some places need to be more harmonious with nature. “Landscape and surrounding environment around the College of Engineering Buildings are very different from the other colleges with much green space,” said Lee Do-hyun (Junior, Dept. of Energy & Engineering). He wanted more trees and grasses around the Engineering Buildings in order to take a rest with friends and enjoy speculating in nature.
Clean Campus: Trash Makes Campus Dirty
If you just take a look around for a moment, you can see that there is lots of trash scattered around the streets and the garbage cans are overflowing on campus. “When I cleaned the surroundings of the Humanities College Buildings and Truth Hall every morning last semester, I realized how much trash we had thrown away thoughtlessly,” said Jeong Seul-ki (Junior, Dept. of French Lang. & Lit.) who was one of the working scholarship students. Park Hai-kyung (Head Manager, I-RE Safety System) who is in charge of the cleaning system of CNU pointed out that students leave trash and leftovers after eating food especially in the knoll behind the Humanities Building 3. “I hope that university students will adhere to public morals as well as broadening their knowledge.”
According to Lee Chun-im, in charge of cleaning the Student Union Building 1, another big problem is posters attached everywhere on campus. “The posters of clubs and advertising flyers of off-campus restaurants providing delivery services make it even harder to work.” Even though clubs’ promotion was done, the remnants of the fallen posters were scattered and dumped in Bongji which spoiled the water. The advertising leaflets are a much bigger headache to the cleaning team. Various flyers are attached on every door of the clubrooms and in the mailboxes of clubs.
How does the CNU Club Association deal with this problem? “If some clubs make the campus dirty, we would apply sanctions against them following the bylaw of the Club Association,” said Hong Gil-hun (Junior, School of Biological Sciences and Technology), the president of the CNU Club Association. According to the bylaw, the club that is too careless to clean the places related to the club activity such as clubrooms, seminar rooms and classrooms will be warned and has a disadvantage of financial support. However, since there is no absolute standard whether it is clean or not, it is entirely clubs themselves share of work. President Hong also said that there is no solution for the flyers from the restaurants but for now “We can officially require that those restaurants stop distributing leaflets after cleaning our clubrooms and posters.”
Communal Space: Students Need More Space
With the CNU History Museum (the former University Administration) and Library Annex as its center, CNU has buildings of liberal arts on its right and buildings of natural sciences on its left. “Yongbong campus was built by a great master plan although it was planned a long time ago,” said Lee Hyo-won (Professor, School of Architecture). Especially, the Library where students brush up on their studies, shows that the university is a hall of learning. As time goes by, the number of students has increased and new buildings were founded.
As it is hard to fulfill all the members’ demands, the best way to improve the campus as a better education environment is maintaining what we already have and developing a sharing space for all CNU members. The place, ‘space of sharing’, is opened for everyone and they can do whatever they want to in the space. For example, Inben (the bench in front of the Humanities Building 3), one of the typical spaces of sharing at CNU, is in a proper location so that people can easily gather. Many students sitting on the Inben hang out with their friends in the time in-between classes. Professor Lee said that making more sharing spaces can have a positive effect on CNU members. Park Jin-hyeon (Freshman, Dept. of Civil Engineering) also wanted more sharing space around the College of Engineering which makes its students feel desolate. “I hope more places are made so that students can freely take a rest there like Inben in Humanities.”
Campus Would Be Better
The campus can be improved by our own hands. It starts from small actions we do such as cherishing the nature, not throwing away our trash everywhere and making good use of sharing spaces on campus. You might compare other university’s campuses and envy them. However, the most important thing is having pride and making up our own campus. If you look around and say it with action, CNU would be a better campus for you and a memorable place on the page of your youth.
By Son Hyun-jee, Student Editor
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