BY MASAHIRO SHIBATA

There are two lunchrooms for students at Sapporo University today. One is the first lunchroom teeming with life. The other is the Linden Hall where sixty percent of the customers are women. I often make use of the latter, and also frequently see some students behaving disorderly. So you should learn some of the charm of Linden Hall and reconfirm your manners.

Linden Hall was constructed in April, 1993, and is run by two full-time and twenty part-time employees. It has windows two stories high curving with the west wall, making not only a cheerful but open cafeteria for students. You can enjoy making choices of meals from a rich menu, and buy bread and drinks. Smoking is prohibited at all of the four hundred places on the first floor, but allowed at all of the two hundred seats in the lounge on the second floor. It is surely a relaxing space for students.

These days some students frequently behave disorderly because, perhaps, it is too comfortable and free a space for them; there are students who do not clear the trays from their tables, who do not give up their seats, and what is worse, who crush out their cigarettes on the floor. We do not simply regard these as problems arising from the difference between the students of former days and those of today. Therefore the manager of the Linden Hall, Toshitaka Narita, was asked about the way of students used it. "Certainly there are some ill-mannered students, but I think that there is something wrong also with us the management. Probably the problem is that we can not meet all the needs of students. For example, it is hot in summer because there are no air-conditioners here. I suppose that dissatisfactions like that grow among them and can affect their behavior."

The management tries to meet the needs of students attentively. It is a matter of great regret that there are some students who behave egotistically, even selfishly. There is a kind of strong indignation felt towards them. Some people make little of the situation simply saying "some students have no manners." But manners mean the behavior based on an individuals morals and ethics whether they meet the rules of etiquette or not. It seems that this behavior of students is bad manners from any viewpoint. Good manners, even though there are differences among cultures of every country, are common etiquette throughout the world. Therefore if you have no manners, it simply means you are already not accepted in the whole world. While at the university, our place of learning, we must find a minimal amount of manners and reconfirm them.

Mr. Narita also said ; "We don't care even if students do not come to eat something here. We will be glad if this is a place where the students get together easily." We really admire him for his big-hearted personality and for his wish for comfortable university life. The basic principle of public manners is not to cause trouble to those around us. We must be careful with Linden Hall which students at other universities have a longing for going to at all costs. Great gratitude is extended to Mr. Narita for giving the interview.