Letters | Asking a baby to be quiet in a library may be a lost cause
- It doesn’t make sense to place a diaper-changing facility only in the library and then worry about noise
I am writing to share my recent findings regarding the baby facilities provided by city universities. Recently, a family member finished a master’s degree at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and we planned to take some graduation photos at the campus together with my four-month-old baby.
To plan the trip better, I wrote an email to HKUST, seeking their advice on the location of diaper-changing facilities.
Their Facilities Management Office replied to say that the only diaper-changing point was located inside the disabled toilet of their library. The only access to that disabled toilet is through the library. And they reminded me in the email that I should maintain the quiet environment when I bring my baby into the toilet through the library.
I am very happy that the campus provides such facilities for its students, staff or visitors. But I would also like to draw the university’s attention towards the contradictions between their kind reminder and the location of such facilities designated by the university authorities.
A library is a place to be quiet. But a baby, especially when it needs a change of diaper, is most likely to be not quiet. This is natural. I hope the university would consider improving its facilities and prevent such contradictions in their coming campus improvement plan.