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- 2013-10-25 16:40:22
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A recent problem has emerged on campus as many of the Blagoevgrad citizens bring their infant children on the territory of AUBG. The noise is one of the students’ major concerns. The administration of the University came up with a solution to deal with this situation- signs, with polite messages that aim to ask the “guests” on campus for consideration.
[caption id="attachment_16443" align="alignleft" width="323" caption="BAC Student Center"]
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Other suggestions, like building a fence and making the AUBG campus exclusive, were spreading around the student body. This, however, is completely out of the question for now. According to Alexander Alexandrov, Vice President for Finance and Administration, the territory on which the residence halls are built, is owned by the Blagoevgrad municipality. The land between the Balkanski Academic Center (BAC) and the America for Bulgaria Foundation building (ABF), though, is bought by the University. In this sense, there is a legal right of the University to put a fence between the two edifices, but the ethics behind this issue stay debatable. “I’m worried if this will not respond to our mission and vision what we are. If we are 'future leaders committed to serving the needs of the region, open and democratic society' and the first thing you see is a fence…I don’t think that it will communicate the vision of what we want to be,” Alexandrov said. Another problem is that sometimes students have guests on campus and putting a fence, with doors that can be only opened with ID cards, will cause certain distress.
Other complaints by students are related to the cafeteria in the ABF student center and the fact that people outside of the university will potentially overcrowd the space over the winter months, and there will not be enough space for students. The problem with café visitors became evident as the semester progressed:
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Alexandrov assures students that if a problem arises, the administration will take the respective actions. On the other hand, as more people visit the cafeteria, the fewer the deficits that the facility generates. ”If we got to the point, when a student can’t find a sit and drink coffee, the first step is that I would put another 60 chairs," Alexandrov said. "Honestly speaking, this would be great. Because right now you pay some money as a form of deficit for this unit through your tuition.”
The noise, however, remains.
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The professor also shared her experience as a student in Germany where families with children were living in the residence halls, with children crying and making noise. She never felt that something was wrong. Some of her colleagues were bringing their children to lectures, but they were leaving the moment the baby started to disturb.
Children’s crying and yelling is not the only noise that reigns around the AUBG campus. Music from the rooms or the lobbies and balconies can also be disturbing. "What I don’t like to hear there [AUBG campus] and I heard it two weeks ago was a loud “chalga” song going on, not from a student’s room, but from somewhere ,a restaurant maybe, and it was all over Scapto and it was really loud,” Wien said.
The new signs that are supposed to restrict the amount of noise are expected to be put around campus soon.
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Other suggestions, like building a fence and making the AUBG campus exclusive, were spreading around the student body. This, however, is completely out of the question for now. According to Alexander Alexandrov, Vice President for Finance and Administration, the territory on which the residence halls are built, is owned by the Blagoevgrad municipality. The land between the Balkanski Academic Center (BAC) and the America for Bulgaria Foundation building (ABF), though, is bought by the University. In this sense, there is a legal right of the University to put a fence between the two edifices, but the ethics behind this issue stay debatable. “I’m worried if this will not respond to our mission and vision what we are. If we are 'future leaders committed to serving the needs of the region, open and democratic society' and the first thing you see is a fence…I don’t think that it will communicate the vision of what we want to be,” Alexandrov said. Another problem is that sometimes students have guests on campus and putting a fence, with doors that can be only opened with ID cards, will cause certain distress.
Other complaints by students are related to the cafeteria in the ABF student center and the fact that people outside of the university will potentially overcrowd the space over the winter months, and there will not be enough space for students. The problem with café visitors became evident as the semester progressed:
“I and two other girls were studying for a midterm on the red couches at the ABF cafe and there were papers and books all around us," Dani Gyurdieva, an AUBG student. "At the same time next to us there was a whole family with two little kids. They were really disturbing, having in mind that our exam was in one hour. Moreover, the children were coming to us and touching our stuff and their parents did not do much .On top of it all, after a while one of the mothers started to breastfeed her kid on the couch next to us. Because of things like these, we can’t study anywhere except for the library. That’s intolerable; ABF is a part of AUBG, it is not a Blagoevgrad’s entertainment place.”[caption id="attachment_16445" align="alignleft" width="282" caption="Alexander Alexandrov, VP Finance at AUBG"]
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Alexandrov assures students that if a problem arises, the administration will take the respective actions. On the other hand, as more people visit the cafeteria, the fewer the deficits that the facility generates. ”If we got to the point, when a student can’t find a sit and drink coffee, the first step is that I would put another 60 chairs," Alexandrov said. "Honestly speaking, this would be great. Because right now you pay some money as a form of deficit for this unit through your tuition.”
The noise, however, remains.
” I don’t mind the kids playing on campus, as long as they don’t make much noise." Julia Shirinkina, another AUBG student, said. "But the children are never quiet. It’s impossible to concentrate and understand what your professor explains to you, when they are constantly yelling and crying.”There is no university policy that implicitly restricts children from the universitiy' s open area. Not only that, some universities even offer Children's care.Furthermore, there are students and faculty, who have infants of their own. Should they also be prevented to enter the campus? Sabina Wien, a mother of an year-and-half-old boy and a professor at AUBG is convinced that there should be some policy, but not an extreme one:
” I would like to see a lively campus, a diverse campus. And a diverse campus would include the dogs, would include the old people sitting around, would include the children, the young people and the kissing pairs and anybody else. Because I think that the campus should not be isolated from reality.”[caption id="attachment_16447" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Sabina Wien, Professor at AUBG, source: aubg.bg"]
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The professor also shared her experience as a student in Germany where families with children were living in the residence halls, with children crying and making noise. She never felt that something was wrong. Some of her colleagues were bringing their children to lectures, but they were leaving the moment the baby started to disturb.
Children’s crying and yelling is not the only noise that reigns around the AUBG campus. Music from the rooms or the lobbies and balconies can also be disturbing. "What I don’t like to hear there [AUBG campus] and I heard it two weeks ago was a loud “chalga” song going on, not from a student’s room, but from somewhere ,a restaurant maybe, and it was all over Scapto and it was really loud,” Wien said.
The new signs that are supposed to restrict the amount of noise are expected to be put around campus soon.