We Have Two Campuses
With a crosswalk at the center, there are two SMU campuses on the left and right side. The 1st campus is on the left side and the 2nd campus is on the right side from the Sookmyung Women’s Univ. station. These two campuses are just separated by a narrow one lane road with a short crosswalk. It took only one or two minutes for reaching from one campus to another one. However, although they are situated a short distance apart, these two campuses are really different. The 1st campus looks old and antique. Old buildings make us think of the campus as a traditional image. Ivy has crept up on the surface of the wall of the Sunheon Building, and old, shabby doors make strange sounds when people pull and push them. In this campus, there are many buildings like the Myungshin
Building, the Sunheon Building, the Sae Him Building, and the Veritas Building. However, the 2nd campus is modernistic and new-fashioned. Buildings in the 2nd campus were built from 2000 to 2005, and that is a long time later than buildings in the 1st campus. Therefore buildings are more modernized. Those buildings are built with marble, so it looks standardized. Also there are many new facilities for student’s convenience. Buildings and classrooms are new, too.
Too Crowd to Study
Although the 2nd campus has better facilities and more convenient environment for study, there are not many students who study there. Instead, the 1st campus is jammed with lots of students and professors. Both the 1st and 2nd campuses are the SMU campus. And every building in those campuses is opened during the semester. But how could one place be crowded and another place be quiet? It is because abnormally too many colleges gathered in one campus or one building. Now almost all the colleges are situated in the 1st campus. Also, two or three colleges are using one building together. You can easily find that there are almost all the Departments of the College of Liberal Arts situated in the Sunheon Building. And the College of Social Science and College of Business Administration use the Myungshin Building together. Due to the concentration of colleges and departments, although they know it will be crowed, students and professors are obliged to go there for their major classes. Also because almost all the liberal arts class lessons are in the 1st campus, students have no choice but to go to the 1st campus. The Myungshin Building is especially busy when liberal arts lectures are in session. Kim Yeonjae, Division of Korean Language and Literature ’12 said, “Because there are too many liberal arts lessons at the same time, it is too stuffy. When we move to the next class, it is really hard to move among many students. We need to line up in front of only one elevator and need to go up the stairs packed with students.” Because of theconcentration of colleges and liberal arts lessons in the 1st campus, students and professors are studying in a complicated and strenuous environment. A participator of Academic Services said, “Students are forced to losten liberal arts classes in the 1st campus because classes in 2nd campus are specialized for College of Music, College of Fine Arts and College of Pharmacy.”
Who Use the 2nd Campus?
Of course every Sookmyungian can use the 2nd campus’s facilities and can study there when they choose classes with lessons there. However, nearly the entire 2nd campus is just for a few students. On the 2nd campus, there are the College of Fine Arts, the College of Music, the Department of Global Cooperation, and the College of Pharmacy. However, those colleges do not have that many students. Those are for a few specialized students. And ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) uses this campus. Because this small percentage of students uses the 2nd campus most of the time, the 2nd campus is relatively quiet and tranquil. Also this campus is used as the place where people take picture for promoting university. Because of its’ new buildings, it is a good place for showing. In this 2nd campus, we can find many places where we can enjoy cultural life, like museums and concert halls. However, despite the new and wide places, just a few are studying here. Although it is possible to spread students who gather in the 1st campus, they have not been.
What about Your Campus?
Then, what about other universities? Do they have their own independent buildings for each college? Are students jammed just in one building? Or are students effectively spread to many buildings? In Hanyang University, each college has its own building. The School of Business has the Business Administration Building, and the College of Social Science has its own building, too. Because there are buildings for each college, major lessons are opened at their college buildings. In each college building, there are many laboratories, professors’ offices, and lecture rooms for each college’s students. Also, there are many other universities where every college has their own buildings. Kyung Hee University and Konkuk University can be good examples. Eom Jaemin, Department of Real Estate Studies of Konkuk University’ 09 said, “Colleges of Konkuk University have their own buildings. Each major
class lecture is in lecture rooms of each college’s building. Therefore, there is no inconvenient mixing with other college’s students. Also, there are enough laboratories and lecture rooms because of the existence of independent college buildings. If the building is too big for one college, sometimes two colleges are used together.” He also said, “There is one independent building just for liberal arts classes, so it is really crowded. However, because every liberal arts class lectures in one building, it is good for finding where classes lecture without being confused with the major classes.”
Make Plan to Make Place
We talked about two problems. The first one is that there are no independent buildings for each college at Sookmyung, and another is that there are too many liberal arts classes in buildings in the 1st campus, the Myungshin and Sunheon Buildings. If that is the case, is there really no solution? If we want to solve those problems, most importantly, there needs to be an enlarging of buildings. Recently, Sookmyung did extension work on the Myungshin Building. Through this construction, the Myungshin Building became wider than before. However, this expanded place became the place only for examination preparation for those who will take exams like the bar exam and the press exam. They made a shower stall, a reading room, a rest room, and a seminar room for those few chosen students. Other normal students who are not preparing for examinations cannot use those places and facilities. Therefore, the extension work of the Myungshin Building did nothing in solving the jamming phenomenon. It is still crowded with students. Therefore, there is a need for real enlarged places for spreading students for their better movement. Putting up new buildings for each college can be another solution. There are
many SMU Buildings outside of the SMU campus. Outside of Sookmyung campus, there are many International Houses, Sookmyung Professional Center, and Saebit Hall. Saebit Hall is for the Department of Dance and the Department of Physical Education. Like those buildings, if SMU built additional buildings for each college outside of campus, there could be better study places for students and professors. Or those newly built buildings outside of campus can be used not for colleges, but for auxiliary departments like the Student Culture and Welfare or Student Service Center, which are situated inside campus. To move those auxiliary departments out of campus and make places for colleges in campus buildings can be another solution. By dispersing liberal arts classes to the 2nd campus can be a solution of jamming students in the 1st campus. Now there are too many liberal arts class lectures at the same time, so if make some liberal arts classes move to empty lecture rooms in the 2nd campus, the 1st campus would be less crowded than now.
Better Environment for Us
As a result, what is our need? For students, a better study environment is needed. For colleges, a better laboratory environment is needed. To fulfill their needs, it is required to extend buildings or build new buildings for each college in the long term. And making life more convenient for students requires a new, effective way of distribution of lectures. It is an urgent need for our better learning environment. If classes are not at the same time in the same building, students can move quicker and easier. Lee Sunah, Division of Korean Language and Literature ’12 said, “I think lecturing liberal arts classes in one building is good because I can meet other students from other colleges in a building. However, if those classes are distributed to many other buildings, like Veritas Building or buildings in the 2nd Campus, it will be more comfortable to move from class to class in break time without crowdedness. Although those classes are distributed, it would not change that I can meet students from other colleges or departments.” The voice about the crowdedness of 1st campus is getting bigger and louder. The effective and elastic policy on campus building should be implemented. It is not common campus which does not have its own independent building for each college. To be more useful campus environment, SMU should consider the first step that makes the distribution of classes convenient. Sookmyungians are also required to speak their incommodity louder, and find the better way with SMU mutually.
