The Policy of Accommodating All Postechians Still Holds
The Policy of Accommodating All Postechians Still Holds
  • Reporter Kim Jin-Seong
  • 승인 2023.04.17 19:28
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▲POSTECH dormitory
▲POSTECH dormitory

 Student housing is a crucial issue directly related to the well-being of Postechians. The POSTECH dormitories comprise of 20 men's buildings, three women's buildings, and one Residential College (RC), with a maximum occupancy of 1375 undergraduates. The Postech Times reached out to Sung-Chul Kwon, the Director of the Housing Service Team, to compile accurate information about Dormitory operation. According to the Housing Service Team, out of 1478 undergraduates, all 1280 who wished to live in the dormitory could enter the dorm. The policy of accommodating all Postechians in the dormitory allowed for no variation.
 Feb. 14 to 15 was the regular dormitory application period, and some students may have felt lack of rooms to accommodate everyone. As POSTECH is facing a time of unparalleled pandemic aftereffects, undergraduates taking a semester off increased during the COVID-19 years, and now the number of students returning to school is gradually growing. In the first semester of 2021, 100 students returned to school, 123 students in 2022, and 154 students in 2023. Furthermore, over a hundred sophomores had to live out of the RC as the number of freshmen increased. The Housing Service Team tried their best but was not able to completely monitor and deal with the application status due to the rapid increase of applicants during the short application period.
 Students who had difficulties during the application process could enter the dormitory after contacting the Housing Service Team. Regardless of the results, the Housing Service Team expressed regret for the lack of consideration and response to the applicants throughout the process. The Housing Team is updating the policy to prevent this from happening again.
 The Postech Times surveyed “Postechians’ recognition of the dormitory operation” from March 17 to 21 and compiled data on 84 undergraduates.According to the survey, seven undergraduates failed to apply for the dormitory during the regular application period. Among the seven undergraduates, four entered the dormitory, but three undergraduates live outside of dorms. Regarding the current application process, 60.7% of undergraduates were satisfied. Those unsatisfied had negative inclinations toward not opening the backup rooms and the lack of single rooms. Also, over 63.1% of undergraduates are using a double room even if they wanted to use a single room.
 Director Kwon said that POSTECH, including the Housing Service Team, is going through countermeasures according to the increase in members and trying to minimize the inconvenience. The Housing Service Team also received complaints about cleanliness and would appreciate it if students used the room in mind that other students will use it next semester. He added, “We plan to communicate through various channels regarding dormitory policies and kindly request sincere attention and understanding.”