On a sunny Sunday, when the whole campus is filled with a crowd of people going on a picnic, the student who goes to school to study feels like he or she is a stranger here.
Also, we can see old women eating lunch in the cafeteria and a father bringing his children to ‘Web’ to buy something like hamburgers.
Currently, the UOS provides a big park to local community. The park is very essential in Seoul. The city is surrounded with the polluted air and is paved with asphalt. It doesn’t have a place that people sit down to take a rest.
Lately, the municipal authority endeavors to make a green tract here and there all around the city. As a part of that, Ssamji (as an original Korean word, which means a tobacco pouch, and also means little) park is shown to us these days.
The UOS has proper circumstances for a park, such as the woods of Mt. Baebong, badminton courts located in the hillside, the good way for a walk, and the fresh atmosphere whose degree is lower 2-3℃ than the area around Cheongnyang-ni. The agent of Soon-eung, Kim, Deok-hyung, said that “Samsung Raemian apartment is more worth than any other apartment in this area. Of course, there are various reasons, but the biggest merit is the UOS itself as a park.” about the influence of the UOS upon the local life.
Does the UOS play a role as only the park to local society? University, the thesaures of learning should not be simply for its own students. It is no wonder that many areas of our school are already opened to local residents.
Yet, it is not only partial, but is not systematically programmed based on local society, either.
The university should interact with the area and people around there. Still, the campus’ borderline seems to divide clearly between the school and local society.
What do they think about the UOS? Exercising at school everyday, they may recognize our school as only a park. It is the important role of the UOS, but it ought to improve quality of local society life higher. Now is the time that education is oriented toward lifelong education and the university should effectively use its advantage that it has complex facilities.
All the people regardless of age, gender, or social group, can use its facilities freely, and the school have the duty for providing a public library and sports center. A resident said, “I want the UOS to be more familiar.”
If you read the following, you can learn about the universities in other countries that communicate well with local society, and find the difference between our school and them. It may be natural because of different cultural backgrounds. However, we can see the way we go to, and draw the concrete outline on it.
1. University of Heidelberg
Heidelberg has been the university city, since the establishment of the University of Heidelberg by Ruperto Ⅰ, in 1386. About 140,000 people live in this city, and 27,000 of them are the university students. As a city of student, the youth of Heidelberg of the youth gives off the young fever at students?pubs every night, and there are a lot of youngs riding on bike. At the center of the city with a little fountain, we can see the college buildings one meter around here.
These buildings are not distinguished from general buildings surrounding them. According to each college, buildings are arranged.
To use the library, people need the library card. The library card is issued upon presentation of a valid student ID from the University of Heidelberg or another form of personal identification such as an identification card.
Users from non-European Union countries may be required to present additional documents such as proof of residence or a third-party guarantor. Also, persons under the age of 18 are also required to present a signature of a parent or legal guardian.
2. University of Cambridge
Cambridge is very well known for foreigners. There are University of Cambridge, which has a high academic reputation and good image for the world outside.
The University of Cambridge also has opened many things to public. For examples, the Institute of Continuing Education provides a variety of courses open to everyone over the age of 18, including International Summer Schools which attract students from all over the world. The Institute of Continuing Education runs a flourishing programme of 600 courses, both vocational and recreational.
Every year, the University of Cambridge provides two interdisciplinary International Summer Schools (Term I and Term II) and 6 separate special subject Summer Schools: Art History, Shakespeare, History, Science, English Literature and Medieval Studies, as well as a programme in English Legal Methods. Our Summer Schools, open to all those over the age of 18. Moreover the University? museums and collections are open to the public. In addition, there are many places to eat in Cambridge and it opens to everyone.
3. University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a city university in Iowa city. This university, like any other universities, opens gym, library, and various cultural spaces. They also make Borrower? permit that allows citizens to look at the data and special programs up and to borrow books.
They even have made the ESL (English as a Second Language) courses for the foreigners to learn English. As one of the extracurricular work, they make various chances to use English by watching movies, taking seminars and programs with American students.
Gym also opens for 24 hours, so citizens can use whenever they come. Also, recreation program was made to help them out do the various physical exercises. Plus, they let citizens take seasonal classes with students.
The UOS Times
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