校園：The Everlasting Shortage of Society Room Space

The Everlasting Shortage of Society Room Space

Every two years-; the Resource Allocation Committee under the Student Union of the Chinese University of Hong Kong will determine how the resources are allocated to different organizations in the university. If you are lucky enough-; you may have a room in Benjamin Franklin Centre， Fulton Centre or Li Wai Chun Building. Those less fortunate ones may share a public storage space. In the worst case， you can still have a locker (yes-; for the whole organization). 

As expected， to settle the issue in a fair manner that will satisfy every organization would be extremely difficult-; if not impossible. Accordingly-; the committee has set up complicate principles in calculating the marks that each organization has. The resources-; therefore， can allocate according to the marks each organization has in a presumably more ‘objective’ manner. The principles-; however-; are set up in a very vague manner. According to documents available， ‘the extent that the organization “needs” a room’ and ‘the extent that the organization “needs” a storage space’ are criteria that can earn the organizations a maximum of 30 marks each. The rest of the criteria include “the performance of its activities”; “its financial health”; “the number of its member” and “exceptional cases”. Each criterion can earn the organizations a maximum of 10 marks. The details on how to determine the marks for each criterion-; however-; are never clearly written out. Most of the time in the committee’s meeting-; therefore， is spent on the complicated operating details. 

Complexity becomes a legitimate reason for bureaucratic stupidity. The presumably two year’s time for resource allocation often automatically becomes three years-; due to ever-lasting debates. 

There are over 100 organizations in the university. Only those rooms in Benjamin Franklin Centre， Fulton Centre and Li Wai Chun Buildings are never enough for existing organizations-; especially when many rooms in these buildings are occupied by other office， e.g. Office of Student Affair (an organization constantly ramps on its lack of space， disregarding the fact that it already occupies two levels in Benjamin Franklin Centre); The Chinese University of Hong Kong Employees’ Credit Union; mysterious degree’s alumni office， etc; and a number of rarely used TV room and conference room. If the university management truly believes in their slogan of “improving interactions among students and teachers”; why don’t they clear up all these spaces for the hundreds of student organizations in the university?