Opinion
 

Good study space hard to find

By Richard Lutz

Last week a controversy came to light concerning a plan that would reduce study space on the second floor of Oberholtzer Hall. My question is, why does it matter? There is precious little study space in the Quadrangle to begin with, so reducing that area from a four-table room to two won't make a difference. Maybe they should make the entire study space into offices; offices are much more useful than book-learning anyway.

The thing is, the room being debated is the sum total of official study space in the Quad. There is a lounge on the first floor of Oberholtzer Hall, but it is not conducive to studying, because of constant traffic and occasional loud swarms of people.

There are classrooms on the third floor, but they are locked in the evening. There is a tiny space next to the vending machines on the ground floor, but it's a one-seater as far as studying is concerned. There is a computer lab, but during peak study hours it seems to be full of people checking their e-mail, chatting with instant-messenger programs or reading their friends' home pages.

The other four halls are little better. There is technically a study space in each, but these rooms are all equipped with TVs, microwaves, vending machines and infuriatingly loud ice machines. They're fine for studying, but only as long as everybody in the room is studying quietly, or you are alone.

I find myself wondering where Quad residents do study. In the cafeteria? A few may try from time to time, but it's not suited for it, what with TVs and students eating. At the library? Surely we shouldn't have to walk halfway across campus simply to crack open a book. It seems that most students have to hide in their rooms or some other private place.

Those who live in the "quiet halls" are relatively lucky, although even they have to deal with fellow residents trying be disc jockeys for their neighbors. And naturally, it isn't better in the "normal" halls. Add to that the necessity of working around the schedules of a roommate or two, and sometimes suite mates as well, and you start wondering what sort of truly heroic effort is needed to study at all.

I applaud Steve Ding and Meredith Youngson in their attempts to save one of the last bastions of academic space in the Quad, but they are fighting a losing battle. What it boils down to, in my admittedly limited view, is that UH is taking the path of superficialities.

For example, the residence halls are being repainted, but nothing is being done about the water, which smells funny. The landscaping is continually being touched up, but it always succumbs to the dual problem of poor drainage and truck-ruts around all the corners from the campus' golf carts. In our quest for Tier I status, we should not favor "programs" over actual academics. Or maybe we should abandon our last hopes of the ivory tower and take lessons in administration instead.

Lutz, a columnist for The Daily Cougar, 
can be reached at drahcir_j@hotmail.com.