On March 5, a fire blazed on the fifth floor of the Frontier Hall, one that was put out in approximately 23minutes. While students gathered outside, patiently waiting for the fiery threat to be extinguished, they exchanged jokes about the incident, and some made exasperated comments about how it was a student rather than an official announcement that informed them of the fire. Still others, to the onlookers’ dismay, noted that the fire alarm had not been set off, which was later confirmed by a hand-wringing dormitory safety and security team.

 

As is evident, the responses of both the safety team and the students to the incident were less than ideal. The evacuation process was disorganized, and the panicked din that surrounded the area until the fire was put out showcased how unprepared the students were. Such insensitivity to safety afflicts the entirety of KU as well. Although there are numerous safety problems found in KU buildings, as in the SK Future construction site, students rarely give them any attention.

 

 

Students’ ignorance of safety issues in KU does not mean that there are only few safety measures in place; on the contrary, the KU Safety and Security Team have been adhering to a rigid safety protocols since 1984, and these have been revised several times until now. To ward off potential dangers, the safety team has drawn up a comprehensive campus safety manual, which covers everything from students’ daily lives to gas leaks in laboratories. In particular, the comprehensive manual states that the safety team should conduct safety inspections of lecture halls and offices on the fourth day of every month, during which team members are to look over emergency equipment and make the necessary reparations to prevent them from falling into disrepair.

 

Perhaps the most essential element of KU’s safety protocol involves the safety team informing students and the faculty of necessary preventive measures through compulsory safety education. Rudimentary safety education is provided during the freshman seminar in the form of an internet lecture, and students can receive more extensive education via the safety team website should the need arise. “A program called KU-SAFE is also regularly broadcasted on Channel 4 on the Science and Engineering Campus,” Shin Yong-sun, the head of the KU safety team, pointed out. “It is televised on the Liberal Arts and Humanities Campus as well, so if anyone is interested in further safety education, they always have recourse to KU-SAFE,” he advised.

 

Despite how much the safety team tends to KU buildings, most would argue that the school administration’s attention should be focused on the SK Future Hall construction site. Recognizing the dangers posed by the construction materials and fumes, the KU Design and Const r uc t ion de p a r tmen t introduced sprinkler trucks specifically to minimize the detrimental effects of the dust created by construction and erected safety fences along the hazardous area. “Pedestrian safety is our utmost priority,” Park Ja-hyun, who works for the Design and Construction Department, commented. “Along with rudimentary measures such as pedestrian passageways, we installed speed bumps, safety railings and crosswalks,” Park elaborated.

 

To account for additional safety problems that could emerge in the vicinity of the sites, an outlet has been established through which students can voice their complaints. The noise that emanates from the construction site is one of the main sources of agitation. Up until now, the Design and Construction Department has deployed noise blocking fences and vibration-minimizing construction methods to mitigate the construction site’s disruptiveness. Furthermore, the KU Student Association (KUSA) pointed out that physically disabled students are expressing their discomfort with the rocky pavement around the construction site. “In response to this remonstration, we have made sure to create a separate passageway for the

disabled students that is paved with a more flexible material than the previous one,” Park noted.

 

 

The fastidious safety measures implemented by the KU Construction Department and safty  team notwithstanding, KU is not completely clear when it comes to safety issues. The ventilation systems in laboratories, for one, are outdated and prone to failure, and the paucity of safety equipment on campus marks another area where KU comes up short. Fortunately, the safety team plans on replacing the ventilation systems next year while also placing automated electrical defibrillators (AED) in those buildings that are missing them. The safety team’s greatest grievances do not concern facilities such as ventilation systems and defibrillators, however.

 

“Hopefully, this year we will finally be able to raise awareness of the online safety education that is available on our website,” Shin said. “It is of paramount importance that students receive this education, but the actual number of students who do is still woefully low,” he lamented. The engineering department echoed the safety team’s concern for students’ insensitivity of matters related to safety. “We recently erected a fence that separates the People’s Square and the construction site to minimize safety hazards,” Park said. “However, an increasing number of pedestrians pass by the fence while looking at their phones, which is a surefire way of getting embroiled in trouble,” Park stressed.

 

As demonstrated by the fact that it has not been beset by any significant emergencies in recent memory, even with the presence of major construction sites; KU is clearly quite safe. However, as both the safety team and construction team emphasize, this should not be used to justify insensitivity to safety issues. The construction team puts it best; “We can never overstate the importance of safety; because accidents can happen anywhere and at any time, it is ultimately up to each pedestrian to watch out for themselves.”