Following our October Feature, we continue the discussion about KAIST dormitories and the issues that students have raised through a survey we conducted. We will focus on the cleanliness, moving in and out process, room allocation system, and accessibility of dormitory staff and instructions. An exclusive interview with the Student Life Team provides KAIST’s perspective on the concerns of the student body. At the end of it all, we hope to present reasonable courses of action for both the student body and KAIST toward the common goal of improving dormitory life.

Room Allocation

Overall, dormitory life in KAIST is relatively convenient. However, that can only be said when one gets assigned to their room of choice. One issue that was pointed out in the survey is that dormitory fees do not necessarily reflect the quality of the rooms, which leaves a lot of students dissatisfied. Particularly in the northern dormitories on the Main Campus, most students compete for spots in Seongsil Hall (N17) which has been renovated recently, and those who fail to get rooms are relegated to less popular options such as Jilli Hall (N18) and Jihye Hall (N21) while paying the same fee. Moreover, there is no system to determine where students would prefer to be assigned next if they do not get their dormitory of choice — they are housed in a random dormitory. Some respondents suggested that there should be a ranked choice application system for dormitories.

Unfortunately, the issues do not stop with room allocation; they persist in the roommate pairing system. Even though students are asked to note down particulars about their lifestyle during the application, some feel that they are not implemented well enough. One respondent shared that an undergraduate and graduate student were forced to share a room despite having vastly different routines and schedules. To prevent this, some students outright apply for single-use rooms. However, the competition for single-use rooms is extremely fierce as there is a great demand by students who want peace and privacy. Survey respondents repeatedly indicated that the school should allow for more single rooms. While the fairness of the room allocation system is not in doubt, students clearly feel that it is far from optimal. KAIST should devote its attention in ensuring that all dormitories are of comparable quality and offer similar amenities.

Moving and Cleanliness

Every time a new semester is on the horizon, the hustle of moving in and out of dormitories is at the back of most students’ minds. Physically moving the entirety of one’s belongings into possibly a different building is a laborious task, and equally challenging is having to get used to a new environment. Yet with all that said, this transition is still much harder than it needs to be. One of the major problems students face when moving into a new room is cleanliness. There seems to be a general consensus that KAIST dorms are subpar regarding cleanliness. A significant number of students reported that they found an unimaginable amount of dust, dirt, and in worst cases, mold upon moving in. This suggests that a lot of students do not clean up after themselves before they move out, instead choosing to shift the responsibility to the incoming tenant. 

There needs to be a clear guideline on how students should clean their rooms before moving out and these rules should be enforced strictly. A few years ago, the dormitory management staff implemented a feature on the KAIST Dormitory System (KDS) website which mandated uploading a photo of the room before finalizing the moving out process. This helped supervisors check the cleanliness of a room before signing off. Even though this system has improved the process, it is highly limited. Even though a system of uploading photos of the room before finalizing the moving out process has helped supervisors check the cleanliness of the rooms, it is still limited. Some schools in Korea hire professional cleaners during moving periods, and some students have noted that KAIST should also consider adopting those strategies. 

The dormitory moving period is a cause of headache for a lot of students because of its uncertainties. Typically, three days are allocated for the moving period, during which students have to rely on the schedule of the students moving out from their new room, who in turn are waiting for other students. This forms a delicate chain where problems propagate if one student fails to move out on time. 

If students are moving to a dorm on a different side of the campus, the Student Life Team or student-organized services offer moving trucks to help ease the transition. Accessibility to these kinds of information should be improved, especially for the international community. Unfortunately, these kinds of helpful information often don’t reach the international community. While improvements to accessibility of information with regards to moving are necessary, this is certainly easier to fix compared to the other challenges related to the moving process.

Communication Barriers

While most of the students have responded to be satisfied with the overall communication with the dormitory inspectors, a problem pointed out is the limitations of communication in English for the foreign students. KAIST annually accepts approximately 50 international students out of 1000 freshmen, which consists of 5% of the undergraduates. While most of the classes are done in English and there are departments like ISSS to help students adapt, most of the dormitory environment consists of English and it is not easy for a foreign student not fluent in Korean to enjoy a pleasant dormitory life without compromisation. 

Apparently, the inspectors are middle-aged Koreans who are not fluent in English which could cause inconvenience in communication for foreign students from daily to emergency circumstances. A solution for this can be hiring inspectors fluent in English or students fluent in English to aid in translation. In reality, it is likely to be impossible to hire at least one English-speaking inspector for each dormitory in terms of financial issues. Thus a more viable way may be to have those inspectors located at the North Dormitory Support Center (N12-1), which started its operation this summer to manage the dormitories located north of campus collectively. As located close to the north dormitories, students in need will be able to easily communicate with them for better dormitory life.

There were also some opinions that having more notices and posters in English would be better. Actually, many posters for clubs or events as well as instructions for dormitory use are only written in Korean and foreign students not fluent in Korean may feel marginalized as a member of the school. This issue can be easily resolved by encouraging clubs to include information in English in their posters or have a separate section on the bulletin board that summarizes the Korean information in English.

Through the two-month-long Feature series, The KAIST Herald has identified issues regarding dormitory facilities, staff, and the moving process. Outside the mentioned categories, surveyees also pointed out other problems, including that the Wi-fi is too slow in some dormitories, that there are no elevators in certain buildings, and that air conditioning and heating are controlled centrally. 

The Student Life Team (SLT) provided an insight into the current measures administered to improve living conditions in dormitories and shared their plans to further iron out the complaints that the students may have. Individual students should contribute to the SLT’s efforts as well. The SLT requested that the students leave the air conditioner on fan mode for about an hour after they finish using it to prevent mold from forming. When moving out, the students should clean the room properly for the next resident. With minimal consideration, a number of the issues students pointed out could be settled.

A comprehensive consideration of the survey results seems to suggest that the fundamental problem is the rise in general prices and the lack of funding, which is preventing the SLT from effectuating its operational plans. This issue cannot be resolved internally by the SLT nor by the students, and should be carefully addressed by the KAIST administration instead. The KAIST Herald hopes that feedback between the student body and staff regarding dormitories can be facilitated more effectively in order to improve living conditions at KAIST.