Last May included many events that many Postechians enjoyed such as the festival and club performances. Moreover, there are many extracurricular activities that students can apply to for the coming summer vacation. How do students get this information beforehand? Many students find out by seeing paper advertisements on bulletin boards that are installed across campus. However, several problems are rising among students about using paper posters to announce information.
Problems
First, using paper to advertise hurts the environment. Posters are usually disposed of soon after they have been posted. Because there are so many posters on the board, a massive amount of posters are constantly thrown away in a short period of time. More often than not, there are too many advertisements on a very limited space, and some are pasted randomly, making the bulletin board untidy. Finally, there are posters of not only POSTECH, but also of outside companies or institutes. Because most of them are not applicable to POSTECH members, they do not want to see such posters.
School Policy
All Postechians are allowed to attach paper advertisements on the notice boards in places such as the student union building, Jigok Community Center, Hogil Kim Memorial Hall, and each department building. If the advertisement is about the Undergraduate or Graduate Associations, Council of Department Student Repr- esentatives, or clubs, students can use the space of the billboard freely. Moreover, the posters about extracurricular activities, contests, and concerts, can be pasted as well. However, any posters that contain information other than those listed above, are censored by General Affairs & Safety Management. In addition, they will be taken down without notice if they are still on the board even after they are expired. There is no price for using the bulletin board, but posters cannot be taken down without consent even if there is no more space. Furthermore, those which contain inappropriate information or are attached on walls other than the designated notice boards are removed, but there is no penalty for not observing the policy.
Positive Aspects
While there are some flaws of paper advertisement, there are also several merits on the flipside such as forming university culture and easy access to vast information. First of all, paper notice shows university culture since many students work together to make them by themselves. The quality of the posters is not what is important, but the fact that anyone can join to add something characteristic is of importance. Moreover, it is easy to draw attention from many students. While they are passing by the notice or waiting for someone, they have time to get information from them. The bulletin boards contain many types of information. If the paper notices disappear, Postechians without connections outside POSTECH will be deprived of the extracurricular activity opportunities outside the university.
Although there are some harmful effects of using paper for advertisement, it also has advantages. But, the school policy for using the billboard is rather inexact and ambiguous, causing more problems. Therefore, in order to take advantage of the good effects of paper advertisement and decrease the disadvantages, the fully settled school policy and its enforcements are required.