[Foreing Community] Improve Dorm Discomfort

Don’t get me wrong. Living in the BTL Dormitory is maybe one of the best things a student can get: nice rooms with individual showers, a convenient rotunda of amenities right in the middle of the complex, and, of course, it’s a short distance to your classes. Since its establishment in 2007, it has been an attractive location and currently houses hundreds of students within its buildings.  However, though it may try to take good care of its residents, the Housing Office can never be fully aware of all the problems within its premises.

Have you been disturbed by regular late evening noise right outside the dorm? Every night, I have heard a number of unscrupulous students shouting and swearing! Quite a nuisance, especially for those students living on the upper floors. It ranges from boyfriend-girlfriend quarrels to rude groups of male students. It is disruptive to students trying to study in their rooms and it is not good for the overall study environment as well. And the reason for these increasing incidents? I would like to place the blame on the management of the pub right in front of the dormitory complex. Drunken students tend to make trouble and the passive receivers of their actions are the students living in the dorm.  I am not against having fun and getting together with friends but allowing the sale of alcohol on campus makes one think that the school encourages alcoholism among its population. 

The food in the cafeteria is another concern. Judging by the long lines every afternoon for lunch, the cafeteria looks like a well-loved dining place for students well, is it? Besides the fact that all of the residents in 9_dong Dormitory are required to dine in the dormitory cafeteria, students are faced with the dormitory regulation of eating there three-times-a-day. This regulation might be hard for students with different schedules and preferences but it is even more so for the foreign population. As we have different tastes in food, I guess that diversity in the menu will not only be a relief for foreigners but a new way to vary Korean taste buds.

There is a rising apprehension over waste management as well. We cannot deny the fact that our dorm is getting worse in its sanitation supervision due to several factors: ineffective waste collection, rampant advertising inside the dormitory and the sharing of some utilities.

Having only one trash bin for garbage collection on the ground floor of the dorm tends to promote uncleanliness. The creation of common trash bins per floor would greatly decrease not only the pollution made by the trash scattered everywhere due to the lack of trash bins but will decrease the work done by the hardworking Ajummas as well. 

Adding to the trash, are the fliers from the rampant advertising campaigns of some companies that use students to get more customers. There are a lot of fliers and promotional items that apparently some part-time working students put on the doors of each room that eventually turn into waste as residents just throw them away. I wish that this problem might be addressed soon as it creates sanitation problems in the dorm.