As the installation of the speed gates has been created to protect the students from the spread of COVID-19, how effective the gates are in terms of recognizing the students’ faces are causing many difficulties for students. Photo Credit: Yu Bin Kwon
The Incheon Global Campus (IGC) began requiring residents to use the facial recognition speed gate in the dormitory at the end of March 2021. The purpose of installing the facial recognition speed gate was to protect IGC students and faculties from the spread COVID-19 and unknown visitors by checking temperature meticulously. However, many students have spoken out against the system, claiming that the speed gate has numerous problems. Students have asserted that the speed gate is fundamentally not answering its purpose. As the dissatisfaction grows, the disappointment towards the IGC Foundation as well as the Housing Office grows. Thus, there must be alternatives to improve the relations between IGC Foundation and on-campus students.
During the operation of the facial recognition speed gate for the last three months, a considerable number of problems were identified by residents of IGC Housing. Before the speed gate was officially operated at the beginning of the Spring 2021 semester, the same things that students were worried about began to occur. For detailed information from students’ standpoint regarding the speed gate issue, The Voice interviewed a GMUK student living in the double room of the IGC dormitory for Spring 2021. The student provided many problems of the speed gate operation that she has directly experienced during two months.
First, the ID card tagging system has been one of the biggest issues. When students are entering the dormitory, the system should be able to recognize the faces of the students that are included in the data system. When leaving, they should tag their student ID cards. However, because of the errors that the system is causing, students are in constant need of help from the IGC Housing Office personnel. The biggest issue within the system is that when students are trying to enter or leave to go to class or meetings, the recognition system takes a lot of time, which puts students at risk of arriving at their classes and meetings late. The situation can worsen if unexpected events occur during the Housing Office off-hours.
These are not the only problems of the speed gate operation. Additionally, the student shared the inconvenience of the speed gate installations. The facial recognition system is not available to recognize the student if they look a little bit different from the registered face. This includes wearing glasses, a cap, a hoodie, a mask, dyeing hair, and wearing makeup. This leads to the long waiting line of the speed gates. As the IGC Foundation implemented the speed gate without gathering the opinions of the students living on-campus, many students are raising their complaints now.
Since the first operation of the speed gate, it has been checked that the speed gate disturbed the students’ living in the IGC dormitory due to systemic issues, including face recognition errors. In the two months after the gates were installed, many students experienced inconveniences caused by speed gates. This had a big impact on the students’ satisfaction with the campus. Numerous students have shared their complaints on ‘Everytime’ application and have requested the IGC Housing office to uninstall the speed gates.
Urgently, the IGC Foundation should be aware of how uncomfortable students are living on the campus and what exact problems students are facing these days, and officially take action to resolve the worsening circumstances by gathering students’ opinions. The IGC Foundation should be more open to hearing out to the students who are living on campus. In situations like this, it is hoped that the Foundation can take action to help the university lives of students living on campus to be more convenient.
Written by Yu Bin Kwon, Staff Writer
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