Our second day in Guangzhou began with introductions and a welcome speech by Dr. Li, the Vice President of the university and a greeting by Dr. Qi, the Director of Student Affairs. Then Dr. Lu, Director of Real Estate, gave an overview of student housing at the university.
Sun Yat-Sen is a comprehensive university with 36 schools and colleges, and is over 100 years old. It has four campuses, and includes a medical school and five hospitals. There are 83,000 students: 32,000 full-time undergraduate, 27,500 graduate students, 4,000 doctoral candidates, 1,500 international students, and 18,000 post-grads. There are 30,000 faculty and staff members.
All full-time students are required to live on campus for their entire academic program. The housing needs are obviously enormous. Housing consists of mainly hi-rise facilities, as land is a prized commodity. Housing is also offered for faculty and staff; a total of 13,000 people are housed in faculty/staff apartments.
"Student Affairs" is sparsely staffed. They espouse their duties to be: 1) political and ideological management; 2) financial aid; 3) daily management; and 4) counselor training and management. "Counselors" are staff members who are assigned to incoming classes of first year students and advise them in a holistic manner throughout their college career. This includes academic advising, personal development, and personal/academic assistance.
Their housing facilities are primarily red brick with green tile roofs. They consist of "ancient and historic buildings", according to Dr. Lu. That means they're very old! The only new facilities are on the "Mega Campus" which is three years old (located on an island with nine other university communities and a shopping center), and houses 17,000 people. As you can imagine, quantity and volume are quite the themes! This is one enormous operation!
Students are housed in rooms with 2, 4, 5, or 6 students. The four person rooms we toured are smaller than the typical 2-person rooms in the U.S., but they have a small bathroom attached. Students pay 750-1500 RMB per year for housing, which is the equivalent of $100-200 in the U.S. dollars. The government provides the land for the buildings, and the university and local government provides for construction and maintenance costs. They keep no financial reserves.
There are no student staff members. Instead they have volunteer coordinators in each building and on each floor. Student programming is provided via incentive money given to the floors that are kept the cleanest and have the best safety records. (Slightly different than in the U.S.!) The top residence halls receive about $500 per year in programming funds. The students' activities are coordinated by these student volunteers with guidance from the Counselors. Students stay in the same hall, the same room, typically with the same roommate the entire time they are in college.
It was a fascinating day! I had the pleasure of eating lunch with the Director of Real Estate, with the assistance of an interpreter. While touring I had a first-year student approach me because she was eager to practice her English; that became a great discussion about her background and her experience at SYSU. Then at our closing banquet, I ate with two students who are looking to do graduate work in the U.S. Before the young man, "Nicky", knew where I was from, he began talking about wanting to study Urban Development at the University of Kansas, "where they have a very good program". You can imagine that the rest of the evening was spent with us becoming fast friends, as he was thrilled to learn more about KU! I believe they'll pursue KU as a matched set, and it would be fantastic to have these bright young students in Lawrence!
