¡ã Campus Police is asking people to stop drinking alcohol by the pond.
Chungbuk National University(CBNU) tightened the members of Campus Police starting in 2008 by adding students from Cheonjabong group members who were discharged from the Marine Corps each year.
CBNU has operated Campus Police to prevent crimes and all sorts of accidents on campus since September of 2008. Campus Police changed its members to the members of independent student organizations and Cheonjabong group in 2013 while before it consisted of members of General Student Association and each college¡¯s student council. Moreover, they are going to ban missionary activities on campus and implement a ¡®taking back trash¡¯ campaign in addition to their existing duties such as forbidding drinking around the pond. Campus Police primarily aims to create an academic atmosphere and to maintain a pleasant campus by rooting out the drinking and preventing crimes and various accidents on campus. They have been working during the first semester of 2013 from March 18th to June 14th. 3 groups with 15 students and a staff of the Office of Student Affairs work together from 7 to 11 in the evening during weekdays.
CBNU asks Campus Police to enlighten the students and citizens politely in the spirit of service. CBNU also bans Campus Police from creating friction with students and citizens during work as they do not have judicial power. They have duties to report what they are doing and to notify situations of patrol frequently between each group. In addition, they have to obey the dress code such as wearing caps and luminous vests and using a signal bar while they work. If an emergency situation occurs, policemen from the Sachang police office will cooperate with them.
According to Lee Jong-hi, one of the team leaders of the Office of Student Affairs, our campus was overflowing with bottles of Soju and food waste before implementation of Campus Police. Drinking on campus was not only done by the CBNU students but also citizens living around the school and middle school students or high school students as the campus was open for everyone. In the beginning, CBNU put up a banner with a warning to call upon drinkers on campus to not do it anymore, but there was a limitation. On average, more than 1 complaint a day about drinking on campus was accepted between April and May before Campus Police. However, after implementation of Campus Police, no more complaints are being accepted currently.
Negative opinions dominated about the operation of Campus Police in the online community. Student A said, ¡°It is useless because Campus Police do not have any active way of sanctioning drinking except for saying ¡®Please, do not drink here¡¯.¡± Student B complained, ¡°I have been thinking that Campus Police members are just killing their time and I do not have any idea how Campus Police is operated as the selection criteria has not been unveiled.¡± Lee Jong-hi said, ¡°Campus Police does not keep public order like a real policeman. They rather enlighten and guide people on campus for a better academic atmosphere as a least precaution.¡± Furthermore, he spoke about the reason of selection criteria saying, ¡°CBNU appointed the members of independent student organizations as Campus Police because they already possess the mental attitude for voluntary service. In the case of Cheonjabong, CBNU requested them to be Campus Police members due to their disciplined image from their uniforms and voluntary work in the campus festivals in the past. CBNU did not openly select the members because of operation efficiency and a lack of selection criteria.¡± He revealed his personal opinion for the Campus Police saying, ¡°I would like to plead with students and campus visitors to actively cooperate with Campus Police when they work for the school.¡±
By Shin Jae-hyoung
jh32@cbnu.ac.kr