It is the first time that the 47th SGA is taking a practical measure to address the foreign tourist problem on campus. The registration of cases was available through Google docs, and the cases were collected for a week, until Oct. 5.
The SGA attached posters of notice on bulletin boards of each college and uploaded them on its Facebook page. Under the title of “Collecting cases of damage and discomfort due to tourists on campus,” the SGA urged students to freely share what they had experienced in order to clearly classify the cases of problems for more substantial solutions on the tourist problems.
“We expect to gather detailed opinions of students based on real experience,” a member of SGA said.
Currently, the measures the school is taking against the influx of foreign tourists are conducting Weekly Ewha Campus Complex patrols and placing placards that read “No entry: Please, no tourists beyond this point” on several entrances of buildings. However, the intrusion of packs of tourists strolling around the campus is still a source of discomfort for students.
Indeed, the number of foreign tourists which had dwindled due to the outbreak of MERS in Korea rebounded. The Korea Tourism Organization expected 210,000 Chinese to visit Korea during China’s National Day holiday, which lasted from Oct. 1 to 7. As Ewha Womans University is a popular tourist site, especially for the Chinese, crowds of tourists interfering with the academic atmosphere of the school has been a constant problem yet to be resolved.
The SGA intends to classify the registered cases into several types and officially report the results to the school, urging for suitable measures. Although only 10 cases have been registered, the SGA will come up with a subsequent step.
Students find the intention of the SGA’s action meaningful. But some students doubt the effectiveness of such measures.
“Classifying cases of inconvenience may be a good start for dealing with the influx of tourists,” suggested Jin Na-yoon, a junior studying Journalism. “However, the after-procedure of reporting the results to the school, and waiting for another set of measures to be taken could be ineffective. It would be better for SGA and school to directly handle the problem together, rather than a SGA’s unilateral delivery of students’ opinions to the school,”
Lee Yoon-soo
yoonpamom@ewhain.net