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It’s Sunday afternoon, and you have an accounting midterm first thing Monday morning. Your roommate and his friends are watching the Redskins disappoint their shrinking fan base once again while destroying box after box of pepperoni pizza. After several failed attempts to stay focused, you finally decide to mosey your way up to T. Coop where you are certain to get some hardcore studying done.
Since it is early in the evening, you practically have the library to yourself. You post up at an empty table on the mezzanine level, plug in your laptop, get out your notes, check Facebook once or twice and then start studying. After two or three hours of undivided study time, students begin to trickle into the library and claim territory around you. However, you have your headphones in and your latest Phish playlist is keeping you in the zone.
The sun sets, and inevitably more and more people show up. Your previously vacant table is now occupied by three complete strangers , who are talking about the ridiculous costumes they donned for Halloweekend (for those of you who are unaware, us college students have a phenomenal way of turning Halloween, once considered to be a single night celebration, into a three day event that rivals certain music festivals). You do not deny that their stories are rather intriguing, but you begin to ask yourself why these people are having this discussion at the library. You look over at another table and there are four other students, eating McDonald’s while hovered over a laptop watching a South Park episode. You are baffled — couldn’t they stay home and do this? At one point you swear you witnessed one student refill her cup from a bag of wine stashed in her backpack. Your study area has been transformed into a miniature nightclub.
The ratio of studiers to socializers almost always favors the latter, and those wanting to actually get school work done are left suffering. Third-year political science student Bobby Saparow said he believes that studying at the library is “like trying to study in the middle of Pavlov’s, but with less bar tar.” Unfortunately, this statement is not far from the truth. Reform needs to take place, and it needs to happen sooner rather than later. I understand that you want to socialize, but is Thomas Cooper really the place to do it?
not like there are any hard classes freshman year worth studying for.