BTL, Better or Worse?
By Kwon Jeong-ha, Student Editor
Chonnam National University (CNU) has changed its Residence Hall System by introducing the Built-Transfer-Lease (BTL) dormitory on campus this semester. This new system has come into the spotlight even before the completion of the BTL dormitory building since it is fairly different from previous ones. However, CNU Residence Halls have encountered difficulties that come from the deficiency of students in residency. Chonnam Tribune inquires into this problem by introducing the new residential system.
Advantages That Come from the BTL Dormitory
CNU introduced the up-to-date BTL dormitory to offer a better campus life for CNUians. The quota of students to be received into existing residence halls was around 2100. The existing facilities have offered several convenient services for those residences such as a fingerprint identification system, free use of the internet and study rooms. However, these, especially in Dormitory I and Ⅱ, are too antiquated to guarantee a good quality of life. From this point of view, the new dormitory is expected to improve residents’ quality of life. This dormitory includes ultramodern facilities such as a bank, a family restaurant, a pharmacy and even a private preparatory academy for examinees who want to be public officials.
“The residents of this new dormitory can maintain their daily life conveniently without going off campus. The epochal facilities in it could be a solution to get over the limitations from the existing dormitory,” said Hong Byung-yeol, a staff member in the Division of Facilities Management. Each of the rooms has an air conditioner; furthermore, the residents can be compensated through insurance when they get injured by using this dormitory. The residents’ quality of life will be positively improved after introducing the BTL dormitory.
Problems Awaiting Solution
This new project was launched by embracing the prospective purpose. Regrettably, it was not easy to materialize this whole ideal goal. The authorities aspired to offer well-equipped residence halls to as many students as possible and might anticipate that the new dormitory will deservedly be more popular among students. However, contrary to their expectations, CNU Residence Halls are confronting several difficulties due to a shortage of residents.
The biggest problem is that there are not enough applicants for residents to fill. There is expected to be a huge vacancy.
Up until August 21st, there were almost 800 vacancies just only in the BTL dormitory. At the beginning, the first registration for residents in CNU Residence Hall included both BTL dormitory and the existing dormitories Ⅰto Ⅷ. There was a provision in the contract for ‘BTL project’ that CNU has to appropriate damages for vacancies. For this reason, it was necessary to prevent the loss and CNU had one stipulation that the number of applicants are unconditionally assigned to the new dormitory until it makes up the deficiency. Under this stipulation, students could not help choosing the new dormitory even though they hesitated for the higher residential price.
As a result, it had over 2000 vacancies, almost half the total capacity, which is forty-six hundred. It was a grave question for the reason that CNU has to make the reparations for the loss comes from the vacancy. As time passed, though the number of applicants increased through the additional recruitment but it was still below the quota. Finally, the CNU Residence Hall locked out the whole eight existing dormitories. In other words, there was still too many vacancies to fill.
Secondly, in the case of practical use of the existing dormitories, the authorities have not provided substantial solutions yet. On account of the solitary operation of BTL dormitory as the CNU residential facility, there are almost 2000 empty rooms in the eight existing dormitories. The Division of Facilities Management is perplexed over this shortage of residents although it is explaining that Law School students would utilize dormitory Ⅶ and dormitory Ⅷ would be utilized as a guest house.
Cause of the Difficulties
CNU probably anticipated that the ‘BTL’ project plays a major role in offering better campus life to CNU-ians. However, contrary to the expectations, a fair number of students hesitated to choose the new BTL dormitory rather than the existing dorms. There are several reasons why this up-to-date facility is at a crisis.
Firstly, the investigation for the demand made a wrong estimate. At the beginning of the ‘BTL’ project, the object of it might include not only the quick extension of an existing dorm but also the attempt to make it as a boarding school. CNU’s ex-President, Kang Jung-chaee, hinted his expectation through following his year-end speech in 2007. “It would be more practicle to realize the dream of a boarding school by lodging the entire freshman students thanks to the BTL dormitory in 2008. It would begin operations at the beginning of second semester in 2008 and we could accept almost six thousand students on campus.” This statement indicates that the primary prospect for the ‘BTL project’ expected uncertain demand.
Secondly, students are burdened with a higher residential fee, so they hesitate to apply as a resident at the BTL dorm. As mentioned above, the primary registration included the existing dormitories and its fee was cheaper than the new dorm’s one. Even though the margin between the two of them was just around fifty thousands won, the BTL dorm had were additional public utility charges every month. It was one of the main reasons why students reluctant to apply for the resident. Kim Eun-jung (Senior, School of Electronics and Computer Engineering) said, “The new dorm is fairly far from my college. Besides, I heard that I have to pay additional fees every month. For these reasons, I hope to apply for the existing dormitories near the College of Engineering for a lower price.”
At present, CNU is forming a scheme to operate the new dormitory without additional utility charges during this semester. The additional charges were the ones to prevent for the overuse of equipments. “Additional charges can play a role as a restriction to control the overuse of energy such as air conditioning or central heating. If there is no regulation, the residents can recklessly use that equipment. We would try to reach a proper compromise on the boundary for use of energy during this semester without additional utilities,” said Kim Chae-hyun, a staff manager of CNU Residence Hall.
Necessity of the Countermeasure to Be a Stepping-stone
Since September 2008, there are eight buildings available. Except for two of them, dormitory Ⅶ and Ⅷ, they are planned to operate as a guesthouse and for Law Schools, there are six more buildings that have no such scheme. It is time to map out a scheme to make efficient use of those excess buildings. They could be used as group study rooms to solve the deficiency of space, clubrooms, or residential buildings only for graduate students who have their own family after marriage. The BTL dormitory has enough possibilities to be a creditable facility under thorough management. The CNU Residence Hall should close down the existing dormitories as a last resort. Although it is regrettable that there are no measures yet, it could be an adequate opportunity when we struggle with this adverse situation. If we use those available buildings for something acutely needed, those will serve as a stepping-stone for prospective success.
*****Built-Transfer-Lease (BTL) system: BTL plays an important role as a countermeasure for the financial deficit of a national university. As a private organization invests its funds to build the dormitory, transfers its ownership to the government and leases that facility to government for the revulsion of the invested capital.
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