The students of the College of Human Movement & Performance recently expressed their concerns over the facilities and sports equipments available in the University Gymnasium, adding to the number of student complaints about this less-than-satisfactory, yet important aspect of campus life.
"Only three large gyms, and two small ones are available in the University Gymnasium and they definitely cannot accommodate all students who need to practice after class," complained Kang Hyewon (Dance, 2). "More gyms need to be added to provide space for workshops and sports classes," she continued.
Students also complained about gym lockers. Most lockers are said to be broken and sports majors said that they must share small lockers with their peers. Despite the size and number of sports equipment items that each student carries, the lockers are quite small in size and therefore the majority of students are forced to lug around their equipments to all classes.
Shower rooms and the ventilation system were also sources of discontent for the students. Moon Ji-young (Physical Education, 3) explained, "We never have hot water, year after year. The ventilation fan does not function properly, either. To make matters worse, now people use this place as a smoking room."
Moon also pointed out that these issues are not confined to Physical Education majors, but are problems affecting all those who are taking sports-related courses. "To take the golf class for an example, there is only one indoor golf practice range in the gymnasium, which only accommodates ten people. There were about 90 students registered last semester and those who are unable to use the indoor facilities were forced to practice outside." Moon also mentioned that students used plastic golf balls for practice, and not enough sports equipments were allotted to students.
"After realizing the seriousness of the problem, the golf course students recorded these shortcomings on video tape, which they later sent to the president of the university. However, no measures have been taken so far."
The Dean of the College of Human Movement & Performance, Yi Kyung-ok replied that "The school is planning to come up with feasible solutions to make students feel more comfortable while training. However, it may take some time because we need to consider the school budget."
Students also criticized the student council of the College of Human Movement & Performance for not fulfilling its duty of finding adequate solutions for the betterment of existing conditions in the gym. The majority of students agreed that the student council and the school had failed to reach a consensus on this issue and that more negotiations need to be carried out in order to improve the gym facilities.
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