▲ Tired. Provided by pinterest.com.

Walking around the Korea University (KU) campus, it is hard to find a place to rest. Department rooms, or the so-called gwa-bangs exist, but they are often run-down or otherwise inappropriate as a proper resting place. Few female-only-resting-rooms are often full, and for male students, even this is not allowed. Those who cannot find a suitable resting place wander around campus, buying an unwanted extra drink in a café, or temporarily sitting in a building lounge. Where are all the students to go? The importance of resting places seems to be ignored within KU. 

University is not merely a place to take classes, but also a basis of livelihood for many. Those who live around campus or within dormitories, and those who stay around campus for a long time all heavily depend on university campus spaces. However, in fact there are not many places for students to stay in. The actual conditions of department rooms, the most commonly used resting places, are devastating. Other alternatives, such as female-students-only resting rooms, are supplementary considerations for many departments, and lounges are available only in a few relatively new buildings. 

The KU Student Association (KUSA) recently conducted a worst gwabang competition in May to create public discussions on the realities of student autonomy spaces. The results have shown that some departments practically had no gwa-bangs at all, some of them impossible to utilize, and some of them under threat of disappearance. For instance, the College of Health Science has no gwabangs ever since it moved its campus from Jeongneung to Anam—a total of eight department rooms have disappeared due to space issues. All it has is its college student association room in Aegineung Student Union Building and Hana Science Center.

The department of Life Sciences is placed in a similar situation. As the department moved from the Life Sciences and Biotechnology Green Campus Building to Hana Science Center, it was deprived of its department room. “It is uncomfortable that we cannot have a place exclusively used by our department students. Meeting department friends all together during mealtime, or staying overnight in emergency situations in gwabang are some things we newcomers can never experience,” said Hong Ha Kyung (’16, Life Sciences). 

Despite the lack of student autonomy spaces, school administrative teams demonstrate constant neglect of the issue. According to an interview with one of the Department of Life Sciences administrative team members, the school has no plans to arrange extra spaces for students. She added, “This is something that the students should understand, because we have received benefits while staying comfortably in the Green Campus Building. Wanting more is greed.” The demand for student autonomy spaces was not considered a prerequisite but a luxury, and an excessive request to the university.

▲ Liberal Arts gwa-bangs in the Communications Building. Photographed by Kim Hye Ri.

Some departments such as English Language Education have rooms that are unusable as a department room. Some department rooms are under threat of disappearance. For instance, although most department rooms of the College of Liberal Arts are located in the Communications Building, which is to be demolished within a few years, there are no concrete back-up plans given by the school administration to provide an alternative. Even now, liberal arts students stay in poor gwa-bang environments in the Communications Building. 

A place for rest means more than just a place to stop by. It is where students gather, recharge their energy, plan student activities and pursue student autonomy. Sincere interest in the welfare of students is needed; the construction of a building lounge on the first floor of Woo Dang Hall should just be a start of it. Let students of KU rest.