Due to remodeling constructions of Jigok Community Center that started from the last winter holiday, the Student Cafeteria is currently not selling Cafeteria food. Before the remodeling construction, Student Cafeteria had been the major place where students could have their meals. Therefore, the absence of Student Cafeteria has become a real problem for Facilities Management team to solve, for the sake of feeding students. The Postech Times has surveyed the opinion pool of Postechians about Cafeteria lunch box, the solution that Facilities Management team has put out to temporarily replace Student Cafeteria.
To start with, Cafeteria lunch box received low satisfactory rate among Postechians. About 69% of students responded that they were unsatisfied with Cafeteria lunch box. Among the students who were unsatisfied with the lunch box, 55% of them picked “Not Appetizing” for the reason. Facilities Management reasoned with this that lunch box cannot be compared to the previous Cafeteria food in terms of freshness, as lunch box contains food for several hours until being delivered to the customers, while Cafeteria food is served on the spot. The secondly most picked was that the lunch box was “Too expensive”, with the percentage of 50%. In practice, the lunch box is currently 1700 KRW more expensive than the cheapest A Course provided at the Student Cafeteria. For the students who enjoyed low price of Student Cafeteria food, the relatively high price of Cafeteria lunch box must have been quite critical. Following was that “The Menu is not Diverse”, with the percentage of 20%. About 66.7% of students who responded “Satisfied” with the lunch box chose “Convenient to buy them” and 44.4% chose “Meals being provided in the form of lunch box” as the reason.
Interestingly, in response to the question “What do you think of meals in the form of lunch box being provided to replace the original Cafeteria food?” about 72.4% of students responded that it was “necessary”. There were various, distinguished answers. One of the most abundant reasons were that lunch box was favorable to graduates who had busy schedules due to research and lab meeting, and thus had meals irregularly. Another major reason was that the school had to provide another means of having food in replacement of Cafeteria food, in order to avoid students being concentrated in Snack bar. Portability and time-saving were other following reasons. Those who responded that lunch box was “Unnecessary” mostly agreed that the absence of Student Cafeteria had to be replaced, but not by providing lunch box. Food being provided in lunch box disrupts freshness while increasing the price, as the students now have to pay for the lunch box container as well. Also, the students wrote that considering of price and few menus compared to the lunch box that could be bought at any convenient store outside of the university, there was no reason to buy Cafeteria lunch box instead of convenient store lunch box.
Facilities Management team is anticipating that the remodeling of Student Cafeteria will be completed by Mar. 1. Considering the underlying unsatisfactory among Postechians for lunch box, students and university staffs are dearly waiting for the days when they can use the Cafeteria again.