It has officially been three months since the new Fall Semester began, and students at Korea University (KU) are finally experiencing the anticipated college life, free from the restrictions once set by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). KU has resumed conducting face-to-face classes for the first time in three years, and the campus is filled with student activities and joyful festivals. With offline events bringing a sense of vitality back to the campus, The Granite Tower (GT) takes a look at the events and issues that have been going on around KU since the beginning of the fall semester.

Most classes now are being held offline, and students are finally getting to experience their ideal campus life at KU. Anam has been bustling with more students than ever, and KU has been hosting various events on campus for students to enjoy. Attractive events such as the 2022 Fall Festival, the 2022 Job Fair, and the long-awaited Annual Ko-Yon Games have enabled students to enjoy better social and academic lives at the institution.

The School Spirit at KU

Shifting to online classes had been one of the most symbolic changes affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In accordance with government restrictions, KU’s most anticipated school festivals and events such as Membership Training (MT), Ipselenti—Jiya Hamsung, and the Annual Ko-Yon Games have not proceeded, and many students felt a great loss of school spirit. Now that the social distancing policies have eased, the campus is full of students as KU takes slow steps toward returning to life prior to COVID-19.

KU hosted its first offline Club Festival on March 16. Since then, KU has successfully continued to hold offline, group events, with Ipselenti Jiya Hamsung being the major event of last Spring Semester. Events were met with eager support from students, and now that face-to-face classes are officially being held, Fall Semester is set to become a fresh start for refreshing campus life.

A major event at the campus was the 2022 Fall Festival organized by the KU Club Union, College of Engineering, and College of Education. From September 13 to 26, the different fall festivals shed light on the culture of KU’s university as it opened several club booths, street and stage performances, as well as a movie night around KU’s People’s Square. During the weeks of the festival, students got to relish the mood of the fall season as they participate in booth events and performances that were prepared by student members of KU.

To gain more insight about the 2022 KU Festival, The Granite Tower (GT) interviewed the Chief Director of [KUredit: KU, Ready?], Kang Minseung (‘21, Political Science and International Relations).

GT: What was the main event of this festival and what was the most important thing when you planned it?

Kang: The 2022 Fall Festival, held between September 15th and 17th, was named [KUredit: KU, Ready?]. Our title represents our desire for this festival to serve as the ending credits of the COVID era, as well as to pitch a question to our fellow KU students about whether they are ready for the upcoming post-COVID era. As a team, our main goal was to deliver the pre-COVID university experience to the students as they pass by People’s Square and congratulate its return at the same time.

GT: What are upcoming events that KU can expect from the Korea University Club Union and how has this 2022 Fall Festival been meaningful?

Kang: The Korea University Club Union has made continuous efforts to guarantee independence and support the activities of all clubs under our umbrella. Our success is not only proven by the number of participants at our events, but also by the absence of visiting artists. It was solely the influence and passion of KU students that created such a lively event. We are proud of such an achievement and believe this self-sustained success to be a legacy that future generations of KU should follow.

Needs for Improvement

As students express their delight over the fact that the campus has finally been revitalized, much anticipation is in the air for further events and festivals that will soon take place at KU. However, it seems as if the school has difficulties keeping up with the rising food prices and labor costs. With the rising rates of inflation, food prices continue to increase around the campus. In fact, on September 19, shortly after the beginning of the fall semester, the student cafeteria located on the first floor of the Student Union Building raised its food prices from 5,000 won (KRW) to 6,000 won to keep up with the soaring inflation rates. According to the Korea University Weekly, this has been the first increase since 2018. Not limited to the school cafeterias, students can see that restaurants around the campus have raised their food prices as well. Students who depended on low-cost foods are now claiming that Anam is starting to lose the identity of its “generosity” where they slowly begin to consider more cost-effective food preferences instead.

In addition, students have been complaining about the lack of gwa-bangs- rooms where students from departments gather to study, have meetings, or rest. According to Korea University Weekly, students in the science and engineering buildings are suffering from a lack of space and the school’s neglect of its aging facilities. With the opening of face-to-face classes, many students need these gwa-bangs for various purposes, but this demand still seems to require a long time before it gets resolved. In fact, the gwa-bang of the Department of Psychology had been removed due to its lack of accommodation in the Communication Building, and it now temporarily uses a room in the International Studies Hall. As demands for the use of these rooms have increased, students' associations and schools in each department are pushing for projects to secure and maintain space for gwa-bangs.

Overall, KU student culture is making its comeback, and it is good to know that KU will keep hosting events to facilitate and help the future of students, which has been neglected throughout the last three years. However, it must be assured that the university will be able to efficiently accommodate the demands for improvements by students, as the limitations of COVID-19 have long been gone. Even more, as students of KU, it is necessary to engage in such face-to-face activities with a sense of responsibility to make sure that this long-awaited school spirit will persist.