Description:
Students who have their lunch in Science canteen during lunch hours (around one to two p.m.) often face the problem of overcrowding and the lack of seats. Not only are there insufficient seats, overcrowding also results in long queues in certain stalls. Students or NUS staff members who have limited time for lunch often have to settle for stalls with shorter queues or even buy packed lunch.
I have observed that there are several groups of people who are non-NUS staff coming to Science canteen for their lunch. They are probably staff from NUH who have their own canteen too. They usually come in big groups (four and above) and tend to spend time chatting after finishing their lunch. The seats are thus occupied even after they have finished their lunch while students or NUS staff are scavenging for seats. Students should have the privilege of using canteen facilities since the food is cheaper than that outside of university canteens.
I believe that preventing non-NUS staff from using canteen facilities will solve the problem of overcrowding during lunch peak hours.
Problem Statement:
The objective of this study is to analyze if preventing non-NUS staff from using canteen facilities will solve the problem of overcrowding during lunch peak hours.
Reader (party who is in position to act on my proposal):
Office of Estate and Development, OED
Purpose Statement:
The objective of this report is to inform OED of the crowding of Science canteen by non-NUS staff during lunch peak hours and the inconvenience it has brought to NUS staff and students.
Another objective is to convince OED that preventing non-NUS staff from using canteen facilities will solve the problem of overcrowding during lunch peak hours.
An attitudinal survey will be done to investigate if students do identify the problem of overcrowding during lunch hours. The analysis will determine if non-NUS staff are exploiting canteen facilities and if there is a need to prevent non-NUS staff from using them. Solutions to the problem will also be collated from the survey.
One of the ways to solve the problem is to designate areas for NUS students and staff (there are designated areas for NUS staff already), which are accessible only to staff and students during the peak hours. Since a lot of work has to be done if the proposal is approved, the survey serves as a population analysis of the seriousness of the problem and the urgency to solve the problem.
Reflection on Learning
16 years ago
7 comments:
Hi Jia Yi,
I agree with you that the situation of overcrowding in Science canteen is an issue that OED should take note of.
However, although I agree with you that the non-NUS staff could be a possible reason, I think that it is not very feasible to regulate their entry into the NUS canteens.
NUS canteens have an open concept which allows for the public to patronize. If OED were to set up gantries just to restrict non-NUS members from the canteen, it is going to cause inconvenience to many more.
Above is simply one opinion of mine. I would certainly hope that the overcrowding situation will improve and will wait eagerly for your report to find out how others think too!
Mmm... yes I suppose it's a case of limiting the numbers somehow or building more canteens to accommodate all comers. I think excluding NUH staff might be quite unworkable as who's going to check if diners are NUS or NUH staff.
Anyway, I know this topic has been abandonned so perhaps this can be resurrected later.
Teacher- Fiona
Hi Jiayi,
I think you brought up a very good issue that all of us face at one time or another. However, as a research topic, i feel that the solution about regulating the people who use the canteen, might not be feasible. Firstly, I believe that there are quite a number of staff who work for both NUH and for the medicine faculty. Secondly, there does not seem to have any way to regulate besides putting up gantries or tapping certain identification cards. However, I feel that implementing either of the two will only result in even more time wastage.
Hence, I will propose that the solution to your problem be that more tables and seats are built to accomodate more users. Also, more stalls can be set up to cater to the needs of such a large crowd :)
The medicine faculty (together with the pharmacy faculty) may also set up their own canteens.
Hopefully somebody takes action for this problem because it sure is very inconvenient! :)
Hi Pei Yu!
I agree that the solution of stopping non-NUS staff from entering the NUS canteens is not really feasible, since that would mean having to set up gantries or to have the stall holders to check the identity of the canteen users, which would be a waste of time and human resources.
Thus, I suggested another solution of having designated areas for NUS staff and students during the canteen peak hours so that there is a higher chance (and greater privilege) of us getting seats.
Unfortunately, my research topic was abandoned since my group decided on a better topic. Nevertheless, I hope that this problem can be solved.
Jia Yi =)
Hi Yu Yin!
I agree that the solution of regulating entry of non-NUS people to the canteen is not very feasible, thus I suggested designating areas for entry only to NUS members.
However, on further thought, I realised that it is not feasible as well since not all people will follow the rules and it would be difficult to check the identity of people in the designated areas.
NUH has their own canteen, which is open to the public like NUS canteens. Thus, their canteen may also be very crowded to result in NUH staff to use our canteen. However, I feel that the main reason lies in the cheap pricing of our canteen food.
Furthermore, building a larger canteen is difficult as space is very limited in Science. Even if OED was to build another canteen elsewhere in Science, it seems that there is no available open space in Science.
This is certainly a major and difficult problem. Not only OED has to alleviate the crowding in the Science canteen, they have to improve on the ventilation as well. No wonder the problem has not been solved throughout my years in NUS. ;)
Hi Jia Yi,
I agree that the situation during peak lunch hours from 12 to 2pm are periods where the canteen is very packed. This overcrowdedness extends from the staff area to the student areas. Many a time, when me and my friends cannot find places to eat, we often have to resort to packing food away or eating at tea time.
I do agree that non NUS staff play a role in contributing to the crowding of the canteen. However, i feel that by restricting their entry would be a rather hostile action and this could lead to a negative image on NUS.
I would rather suggest the renovation of the Science canteen to that similar to the Arts canteen. You would agree with me that the previous arts canteen was exactly like Science, hot, humid and crowded, during peak lunch hours. However, the renovation of the new canteen has opened up much space and provided a much brighter and cooler environment to dine in.
Hui Ming
Hi Hui Ming!
I agree that restricting non-NUS personnel from using canteen facilities was a little hostile, guess I was really upset with the overcrowding issue in the canteen. =)
The renovation of the Science canteen is a good way to solve the problem. However, it is a big project and thus would take a really long time for the work to commence. I heard from my friend that NUS took really a long time (several years) to contemplate the issue before deciding to renovate the Arts canteen.
Sad to say, I do not think that the Science canteen will be improved in the near future. Maybe someday after we graduate, we can visit the school to see if the any improvements have been made.
Jia Yi =)
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