Student Feedback Reshapes Humanities Commons Plan

The College of Humanities’ complex learning commons project, which was postponed due to the controversy of the “opaque restructuring of department student lounges,” will be promoted again by reflecting the opinions of students.

On August 13th, the College of Humanities announced that it would carry out the construction of a complex learning commons during the upcoming winter vacation. According to the existing plan, construction was scheduled to begin during the summer vacation and be opened to students starting from the fall semester of 2025, but the project was delayed as controversy arose over insufficient consultation with students regarding the downsizing of the department student lounges as can be seen in a “Channel PNU” report, dated June-5th,2025. 

According to the College of Humanities, the complex learning commons will be located in the basement of the Humanities Building where the department student lounge is located as planned. The Student Council of the College of Humanities will use part of the 4th floor of Moonchang Hall. Each department will be assigned one student lounge, by converting the Jinhyeonjae Room, on the fourth floor of Humanities Building and Lecture Room 401 in the same building. The shortage of classrooms caused by this decision will be resolved by using the lecture room of the Institute of Liberal Education in the Humanities Building. Lee Eun-Ryeong (Vice Dean, Dept. French Language and Literature) said, “Classes that had been held in Lecture Room 401 will be relocated to lecture rooms owned by the Institute of Liberal Education.”

The College of Humanities, which was planning to allocate one room for two departments, revised the project to one room per department, by reflecting the results of the survey of humanities students conducted after the controversy of “opaque restructuring of department student lounges.” Kim Ye-Bin(Dept. of French Language and Literature), the chairman of the College of Humanities said on August 1st, “Based on the results of the enrolled student survey, I heard that the space has been secured through the dean and vice dean of the College of Humanities.”

The College of Humanities said that additional project funding has been secured to provide one room per department. While the original budget (one billion won) is sufficient to renovate the Jinhyeonjae Room on the 4th floor of Humanities Building and the student council room on the 4th floor of Moonchang Hall, additional costs will be incurred to convert Lecture Room 401. When “Channel PNU” asked about the specific budget amount and its source, the College of Humanities refused to answer.

When the plan to reorganize the school for the project was announced in March 2025, Humanities students strongly opposed renovation plans by posting protest statements on campus as reported by “Channel PNU” on March 28th, 2025. Accordingly, in May 2025, the Humanities University Student Council organized a “Student Council Room Communication Task Force (TF),” consisting of both student council and non-council students and conducted a survey of 490 humanities students. According to results analyzed by “Channel PNU” on June 5th, 2025, 74.9% (367 people) of the respondents opposed consolidating two departments into one room and then creating the learning commons, while 72.4% (355 people) of students were in favor of creating learning commons when guaranteeing one room per department (reported by “Channel PNU” on June 5th, 2025).

Reporter Lim Seung-Ha

Translated by Channel PNU