The long-anticipated Shao-mo Memorial Gymnasium was finally open to students at the beginning of the semester. Students are excited and impressed by the choices of facilities and the ample space that is available for activities. However, they are quite confused by the layout.

Most students who have been there for classes point out that the gym is not well signposted. Due to that, the place comes across as a maze sometimes, according to Wu Po-Jui, a freshman at the French Department. One student, Chen Ting-chu, a sophomore of the English Department, another victim of the maze, said that she turned up for her aerobic class half way through because she spent half of the time looking for the room. This issue has been relayed to the university authority by the Physical Education Section already and hopefully necessary signposts will be installed soon.

Apart from no clear signposts to classrooms, security issue is another concern. For instance, the emergency routes to various exits can be better indicated. For such a huge building and when it is packed with students, smooth evacuation won’t be easy. According to its current design, the main emergency exits are located on the 4th floor, which also work as the exits for those evacuated from the 5th and 6th floor. It is vital that these routes are clearly signposted. All these doors will be shut from outside after opening hours so that users can only leave rather than enter the building to enhance security level.

Another security measure the university has thought of is having doors armed with security device that requires pin numbers on the 2nd and 3rd floor. By the end of September, the application for authorization of entering and exiting the building by student clubs will begin. Details of that can be attained from the Extracurricular Activitives Guidance Section.

UPDATE： 2010/09/27 CLICKS： 1258 DOWNLOADS：