Peking University, Oct. 27, 2010: "I'm even afraid to eat on campus!" complained Peking University students who were thrusting their way through the crowd at one of the dining halls.
It seems more congested than ever this semester in the university. At one time, "congestion" and "long queue" became hot words at BDWM, official bulletin board system of PKU.
Just past 12:00 am, the second floor of Nongyuan Dining Hall is crowded with people, and recycling cars can hardly make room for themselves. Both people and vehicles feel hard to move at the gate. Meanwhile, the stream of people makes the long queue distorted in front of the meal-card recharge room of the Center of Catering Service. Carrying bath baskets and clothes, students still queue up in front of the bath room at 10:00 pm, stretching to the No. 5 Student Canteen. No more than two months since new semester has begun, PKU students are familiar with these scenes.
Used to endowed privileges, the students are susceptible to the change that has already affected their interests of personal concern. As a result, various theories have been put forward to explain this phenomenon, such as "enrollment expansion," "timetable adjustment," and “increased outsiders," or "non-PKU people."
Congested road in front of Nongyuan Dining Hall at meal hour
Long queue in front of the meal-card recharge room
A popular ID named "idiot"—a PKU teacher in real life—posted an article titled "discussions and suggestions on dining" at the PKU_Suggest board of BDWM on Sept. 16. It describes and analyzes the canteen congestion and gives some suggestions. According to this article, there are probably four reasons: 1. the enrollment expansion of PKU, especially postgraduate students; 2. the adjustments of school hours; 3. the further overflow of meal cards; 4. a rising CPI. "Further investigations should be made to identify which is the main factor or all of them are as important," said "idiot."
Monitored by the university adminstration, the board serves as an online channel for complaints, and transactions. But till now, there is no direct official reply to "idiot"'s proposition.
Is "enrollment expansion" really true?
The question having been widely discussed, the Admissions Office gave no clear answer on the actual number of students enrolled in PKU this year. However, "enrollment expansion" is widely agreed throughout the campus when school begins. "There are actually more students. The canteens become more crowded, the queue in Boshi Supermarket becomes longer, and student associations also recruit more." said Lü Xing, an undergraduate from School of Earth and Space Sciences. Most students interviewed have no idea about the "enrollment expansion" data but heard about it. And it becomes the target of congestion criticism to some extent. "I heard about the 'enrollment expansion' and it is obvious that there are more students. In particular, take Nongyuan Dining Hall for example, it's hard to squeeze in at meal time," said Zhan Mingjie, a student from School of Economics.
One staff who has been working in the Campus Restaurants (Chinese-style) for eight years said: "We used to prepare 200-300 chicken legs, but now we must prepare 200 more."
"The Ministry of Education has laid down a criterion of per capita dining area. According to the criterion, PKU is short of dining area in general at present." said one of the staff from the Center of Catering Service.
New timetable, more congestion?
In this semester, a new timetable is conducted after soliciting students' opinions on school hours. To solve the problems caused by the old timetable, such as limited time for lunch and break at noon, less time for activities in the evening, the short of public teaching spaces in campus, and the unsatisfied effect of class education, the new one postpones the fifth class for half an hour. To some extent, it guarantees the break and lunch at noon for students. "I like the new timetable because it is convenient for me to have lunch," said Zhang Hao from Yuanpei College.
However, in some students' opinion, the new timetable will aggravate the campus congestion to some extent. "It means well to adjust school hours, but it will influence our supper time. Besides, only 30 minutes for lunch and break at noon is not enough. The adjustment of school hours will aggravate congestion by making several rush hours together."
A staff from Jiayuan Dining Hall said that from 11:30 to 12:30 at noon and from 17:30 to 19:00 in the evening were the rush hours, which lasted obviously longer than last semester. Besides, staff from Campus Restaurants told the reporter of PKU Journalism and Communication Press (JCP) similar situations.
The service hours are not expanded in accordance with the expansion of rush hours. "In particular, sometimes food is not supplied or cold even it is still before 12:30 in Nongyuan Dining Hall," Huang Ying from School of Foreign Languages grumbled. Usually, canteen located in the teaching area witnesses the peak of students at noon. Although the postponement of the fifth class makes it possible for students to avoid the rush hours during lunch time, the service hour is still mainly from 12:00 to 12:30 and it seems unpractical to re-heat the food.
"We can endorse a policy of setting different class timetables to avoid the rush hours, but it seems to be too ideal and unrealistic," suggested Ge Hongxing from the School of Physics. Taking the PKU_Suggest board on BBS for example, students suffering from mass congestion and fast-eating in the canteens in the teaching area had heated discussions and came up with different proposals, of which many had been rejected by themselves.
"The service hours of all the canteens are seldom adjusted, because after 12:30 few people come to have lunch. Problems will not be fundamentally solved by expanding service hours," said one of the staff from the Center of Catering Service.
Do non-PKU people "move our cheese?"
Another phenomenon in the campus has long arouse controversy among students: by renting, borrowing, buying, and other illegal means, some non-PKU people manage to get authorized meal cards and eat in the canteens. "There are many ways to overflow meal cards. For example, someone borrow from their relatives and friends while some students rent their cards. We are doing some research. We will cancel the card as long as it is evident that it is rent. But it's difficult to get unambiguous evidence," one of the staff from the Center of Catering Service shrugged her shoulders.
As PKU canteens are dubbed "Zhongguancun Big Canteen," the students' clamor for the combination of student ID card and meal card seems increasingly strong. However, considering the inconvenience it may cause to participants from short-term training courses in PKU, it is unpractical. Some students suggest that the university open special dining area for non-PKU people in the canteens. In contrast, no matter how students show their dissatisfaction to non-PKU people who manage to occupy students' franchised resources, advertizing pieces such as "Meal Card For Rent!" are easily seen on bulletin boards for course arrangement in nearly all the classroom buildings, and elsewhere, including some ATMs on campus.
Taking about the ways to solve the campus congestion, Zhang Hao suggested that "It will reduce canteen congestion if the passage on the first floor in Nongyuan Dining Hall is changed to one-way." Similarly, Lü Xing proposed that "Public facilities should be further exploited and utilized, and more strict restrictions should be made on motor vehicles during rush hours."
Like "idiot"'s, their voices are as strong as the BBS users yelling "I'm even afraid to eat on campus"—or even stronger.
Reported by: Cao Yuchen, Mao Yan, Xie Sinan, Chen Jieyou, and Qian Yibin
Translated by: Zhang Hao
Edited by: Su Juan
Source: JCP News
