Ewha establishes Ewha Welcome Center as countermeasurement

Tourists are busy taking photos of Ewha Campus Center (ECC). Photo taken by Chung Yun-jo.
As large numbers of inconveniences have been reported with regard to disturbance of the academic atmosphere because of visitors and tourists on campus, Ewha has been using an electronic security system, along with “No Entry” signs, at the ECC Gate 2 since April 2012. This system installed over a year ago allows entrance only to those with student or faculty identification cards, thereby restricting some visitors’ access during the daytime. The same electronic security system has also been set up in 21 buildings on campus, including the Admission Hall, Ewha-Shinsegae Building, Welch-Ryang Auditorium and Hanwoori Hall. However, these electronic measures have proven insufficient in blocking outsiders as they simply follow in behind students, and the guards are too few to deal with them effectively.
“There are 12 gates in the ECC and only two security guards patrolling around the first, second and third underground floors,” said Lee Gwan-hee, one of the ECC security guards. “The only way to recognize tourists is their possession of cameras since they are otherwise difficult to distinguish from students or people attending academic conferences. Upon detecting them, we tell them to put their cameras away.”
These additional measures have also proven insufficient in handling outsiders. To further alleviate student inconvenience, Ewha has set forth a new solution: Ewha Welcome Center.
Scheduled to open on May 31, 2013, Ewha Welcome Center has been constructed with the aim of efficiently managing visitors as well as systematically introducing them to Ewha’s history and traditions.
In the survey noted earlier above, the question was asked, “Do you think Ewha Welcome Center will be an effective method for managing visitors?” To this query, 65.85 percent of students answered that it will somewhat or fully relieve inconveniences caused by tourists, while 34.15 percent answered that it will not be somewhat effective or not effective at all.
“Ewha Welcome Center may relieve some of the inconveniences caused by tourists; however, in itself, it cannot be a perfect solution,” Lee Mok-hwa (Mathematics, 2) said. “In some aspects, it is worrisome that the school may turn into a profit-making institution.”
Ewha, however, expects the welcome center to be helpful in efficiently managing tourists and visitors and mitigating current problems.
“Ewha Welcome Center is expected to cotribute in introducing educational competency and values of Ewha to visitors and tourists,” said Choi Jung-in, the official of Communications. “Furthermore, we will also inform them about protecting student’s learning environment.”

* Reporters: Lee Sang-ha & Oh Seo-jin

* Emails: banilab5748@ewhain.net, seojinoh@ewhain.net

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