### CAMD: Korean Awareness Week
Students feasted on authentic Korean dishes such as bibimbap and kimchi fried rice on Thursday as part of the first ever school-wide Korean Awareness Week, hosted by Andover Korean Society (AKS). AKS co-hosted a Philomathean Society discussion on North Korean Sanctions on Monday. At its Tuesday club meeting, Women’s Forum deliberated on recently-elected Park Geun-hye, the first female president of Korea. Asian Society discussed the history and culture of Korean cuisine on Wednesday, and made pattbingsoo, Korean shaved ice. The week will conclude tonight, with a 6:30 p.m. showing of “Joint Security Area,” a movie about South and North Korean border tensions.“Our hope is that everyone at PA will learn at least one thing about Korea. If everyone can remember one new thing that they learned about Korea, then we will be happy,” wrote Yeo Bi Choi ’13 in an e-mail to The Phillipian.
### Paresky Commons: Changes to Travel Mug Program
After sending out a survey to assess mug usage in the “Borrow a Mug” program, Justin Wang ’13 and Christiana Nguyen ’13, developers of the program, have reintroduced paper cups, and plan to purchase more mugs and establish a work duty system for mug retrieval. As the program has only spent $1,900 of the $3,000 grant to purchase the initial 1000 mugs, Wang and Nguyen will use the remainder to order additional mugs over Spring Break. According to the survey, 75 out of 271 people said they use two or more travel mugs per day. As 172 people said they take out food in the mugs, Wang and Nguyen decided to reintroduce paper cups in Paresky Commons to serve as an alternate for carrying food. “We know that people used to bring food out in the [paper] cups, and we would really prefer people to not bring out food in the mugs. It makes it so much harder for Commons people to wash them, and I know some kids have been complaining about the residue on it,” said Nguyen. According to the survey, the majority of students plan to continue to use the travel mugs over paper cups. Of the students polled, 62.3 percent said they preferred travel mugs. 23 percent preferred paper cups. “It is just an issue of making sure [the mugs] are available at all times,” said Wang. Nguyen and Wang have already created a work duty system to retrieve dropped-off travel mugs from bins around campus. They will add an additional 15-20 students to wash and set up the mugs in Commons.
### Memorial Gymnasium: Boys’ Locker Room Renovation
The chipped paint, worn down floors and rusted lockers will all be fixed in this summer’s renovation of the Memorial Gymnasium boys’ locker room. The project, funded by the Andover endowment, will begin in June 2013 and conclude before Labor Day in September 2014, according to Michael Kuta, Director of Athletics. Along with freshly painted walls and upgraded flooring, the renovation plans include improved shower facilities, a more effective ventilation system and brand new lockers, said Kuta. The new plans include lockers of a variety of sizes to accommodate various athletic equipment. Larger lockers will reduce the number of items left loose in the locker room and decrease theft, said Kuta. “Consistent attention to our facilities is important to offer a clean and safe environment for our students,” said Kuta. The renovation plans also include a fresh coat of paint and upgraded light fixtures for the hallway facing the south side of the gym where the buses depart, and a new storage room for off-season equipment. The locker room will also be reformatted into a more handicap accessible layout.
