For the pleasure and convenience of Ewha students, the Office of Planning and Coordination and Property Management have remodeled facilities in the Ewha-POSCO Building. Ewha Campus Complex (ECC) and the Student Union Building has also undergone remodeling.
Tables, chairs and boards in the Ewha-POSCO buidling, female bathrooms on the first floor of the Student Union Building, and sofas and sleeping beds in the ECC have been replaced and remodeled.
Before the facilities were replaced and remodeled, Ewha students have long been filing complaints. The inconvenience of wooden chairs used in the Ewha-POSCO Building was one among many.
“The chairs in the Ewha-POSCO building were connected to the desks, which made it more uncomfortable for students to sit on and stand up,” Park Jin-a (Mathematics, 2) said. “I was annoyed whenever I tried to sit on them.”
ECC sofas were not an exception. Many Ewha students were reluctant to sit on the sofas because of their sanitation issue.
“The sofas were damp, especially in the summer,” Choi Eun-jin (Elementary Education, 2) said. “The sofa fabric had been stained for a long time, and to make matters worse, people would even eat and leave their crumbs on the seats. The sofas did not seem like a clean place to sit on.”
To alleviate students’ discomforts and provide improved classroom environment, school offices including Property Management, Facilities Maintenance, Office of Financial Affairs, Purchasing, and Office of Planning and Coordination (OPC) decided to renew classroom facilities including chairs, desks and black boards in the Ewha-POSCO Building.
Facilities were replaced by those from different brands that were selected directly by students and professors. Specific brands and items were chosen through a survey conducted by the College of Social Science as a part of their secondary classroom environment improvement business.
“We have prepared a lot to fulfill and satisfy student requests,” said Lee Yong-seu, the general manager of the OPC. “The business at the Ewha-POSCO Building was operated as a trial. We are planning to gradually enlarge the scale of replacements based on the students’ reactions.”
The renovation also took place in the ECC. Sofas in front of ECC Gate 1 are now replaced by new chairs which are easier to clean.
According to Woori Ewha, the 45th Student Government Association, the replacement was one of their promises to upgrade the sanitary conditions of the sofas. Students are showing positive responses toward the change made in ECC sofas.
“The replaced chairs in the ECC look much neater and cleaner,” Lee Yu-li (International Studies, 1) said. “Now I can sit on them without any concerns of getting dirty.”
Furthermore, sleeping beds in the ECC sleeping rooms were changed into new rattan chairs. The Ewha Womans University Library realized the necessity of renovations in the ECC sleeping rooms after the Ewha Weekly covered the existence of house dust mites within the rooms last May.
“In addition to the replacement of sleeping beds, the number of sleeping chairs has increased from 18 to 32,” said Kim Sun-mi, a manager of Ewha Womans University Library.