At CBNU (Chungbuk National University), there are other school gates besides the four main gates of the university: Front Gate (Jeongmun), East Gate (Humun), South Gate (Nammun) and Inner Gate (Jungmun). There are also the school side gates (Jjokmun). Although the side gates are as important as the main gates in that they are also included as school gates and managed by CBNU, the side gates have not been maintained well.
  Because of the fact that the CBNU is not surrounded by mountains and located in an important traffic center, CBNU is readily accessible from anywhere. For these geographical characteristics and a large campus area, CBNU has relatively more side gates than other universities. There are only four main gates where cars can pass into the campus. At the side gates, stone blocks or stairs are situated to let only people in the campus. There are eight side gates in CBNU. One side gate is near the Nursery School, another is behind the College of Education, two side gates are near the Academy of Continuing Education, another is a flight of stairs behind the Hyeong Seolgwan, another is near the College of Agriculture, and the other two gates are near the College of Pharmacy.
  Actually, each side gate has as considerable pedestrian traffic as the main gates. They serve for reducing commuting time and distance. Because of the fact that most lots of houses for students are located near the side gates, the side gates are much closer to school than the main gates. For these reasons, many CBNU students and workers frequently use them.
  However, since they are not official gates and are not marked on the CBNU map, the side gates are less managed and relatively unknown to students except for the people who frequently pass by the buildings near the side gates. For those reasons, the foreign exchange students or freshmen usually don’t know where they are. In a majority of cases, many people know where they are by acquaintances. Choi Hye-ri (Dept. of Psychology, Pyeong Taek) said, “Every week when I go to the dormitory named BTL by bus, I have to detour a long distance to BTL because of the school fence. If I had known the fact that there is a side gate that can directly connect to BTL, I could have saved my time and trouble.”   Actually, when the students who live near the front gate (Jeongmun) want to go to the College of Agriculture, it is faster to go through the side gate rather than the front gate (Jeongmun).
  In addition, even if its size is smaller, each side gate is also CBNU’s face as it is one of CBNU’s gates. In other words, as symbolic structures in CBNU, the side gates affect the school image. However, their state of management is very poor considering their symbolic importance. Especially when it comes to one side gate near the Nursery School, it is always covered with a trash heap and plastered over with posters. This makes pedestrians feel offended.
  On this issue, Gim Hyeonggi (an officer charged in the Management of Landscaping, General Affairs Section) said, “Actually, there is more trash that residents throw away than CBNU students, and there is a limit of work force. For these reasons, to solve the trash problem, we asked the ward officials and the Sa Changdong officials for cooperation.” He asked the students to use public facilities with a sense of ownership.
  Safety problems are also emerging as a major issue. Park Hwiyeong (Dept. of English Language and Literature) said, “Although many side gates are located in out-of-the-way places, I can hardly find any streetlamps. Since the nearby district is very dark at night, I deliberately detour to my home through the main gates.” Actually, as a result of going around all the side gates in CBNU, all gates except for only one side gate near the College of Pharmacy do not have streetlamps, and it seems very dangerous for students. In order to prevent crime, the school should have their eyes on the side gates.
 
By Lee Su-ji | sj34@cbnu.ac.kr