Playing with words, is this the best we can do?

FROM LAST September, our school has continuously been under a debate - *Baekyang-ro* project drove students and professors out on the campus. As the issue is expected to bring a big change to the Yonsei campus, they all expressed their opinions on the issue, which have not reached an agreement. But, what is more to the project itself is the attitude which Yonsei University as a whole, including the administration, student bodies, and the students, is taking. Their ground is full of puns, both in calculating the size of the parking lot and in informing about the project.
One example is how there is no one answer on the ratio of parking lot; diverse answers exist - 77%, 60%, and 32%. The ratios of the size are all different though there is only one parking lot. Are people lying? No, all these results neither are lies nor have errors, but just differ depending on the calculation.
Box 1
Parking lot à 12,300 Pyeong
Roadway and sidewalk à 3,200 Pyeong
Total underground construction area à 20,200 Pyeong
Total construction area on the groundà 18,400 Pyeong
Different ratios of parking lot
(Parking lot + roadway & sidewalk) / total area of underground constructionà approximately 76.73%
Parking lot / total area of underground constructionà approximately 60.89%
Parking lot / total area of the construction à approximately 31.86%
 
Even though the designated area for parking lot has not changed after the construction began, the ratio of parking lot differs according to how they are computed with different data. Like these results, sometimes numerical values show contradictory results even though they are based on truth. Thus, this enables people to distort the figures according to their own advantages. Regarding the parking lot ratio, those who have expressed their opinions with the numerical data that show the above-mentioned statistical contradiction will not be able to avoid the criticisms that they have used the figures to their own advantage.
Adding onto how there were puns of intentional numerical manipulations, word twistings happened when the school administration explained tree cuttings to the university community. The school administration, at first, had said that they would replant all the trees, but they cut most of them, and later it was found out that the school actually intended to replant all the ‘symbolic’ trees. It seems that the school played with words to their own advantage. On the other hand, Yonseians who were against the project also expressed their opinions in a wrong way. Banners hung by Camportable, a student organization that goes for *Baekyang-ro* project, were found ripped in half by someone, and this is an act that goes against being an intelligent university student. There were many more behaviors by the student body that showed their immature responses to what they were not in favor of.
What is the most disappointing here is not the unsatisfactory designations of the construction, but how the institutions of Yonsei fell into childish word plays and immoderate behaviors to dazzle and deceive the Yonsei community. The construction will end in 2015, but these troubles will not end if continue on with such deceptions.
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