USC creates new study spaces to accommodate library influx

USC creates new study spaces to accommodate library influx

Diane Huang

Diane Huang, Online Editor-in-Chief
October 14, 2015

After the removal of the sophomore and junior benches, a lack of space has forced students into the library to study and socialize. However, the noise level has been distracting for students who try to study in the library and nearly unmanageable by the librarians. To combat the issue, the Upper School Council established new study spaces for students that need a quieter place to work.

“We decided to do it because we had been getting a lot of complaints that people don’t have spaces to work, especially quiet spaces, because the library’s gotten really noisy. The librarians too have been complaining about the noise level. So we thought if we could open up more spaces it would at least begin to decrease the noise level,” USC Representative Numi Katz said.

Together, Katz and fellow representative Adnan Askari set out to find open classrooms.

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They’re still classrooms, so even though [students] might just be doing school work, it’s important to understand that when they’re done, the classroom should be ready to use [for teaching].

— USC Representative Adnan Askari

“It wasn’t very difficult to [find classes].  The main obstacles were that students aren’t legally allowed to be in science classrooms without [supervision] and that language teachers use their classrooms as offices as well so we couldn’t use those either,” Askari said.

While there aren’t very many classrooms available, Katz believes the rooms will still make a difference.

“There were actually a lot fewer classrooms open than we thought, so it doesn’t have a huge impact but we thought that the impact would be significant enough that we decided to go through with the plan,” she said.

Askari agrees, pointing out that the classrooms won’t completely resolve the noise levels in the library.

“Although the purpose of [the classrooms] isn’t really to solve all of these problems, it was meant to improve them,” he said.

Askari reiterated to students who intend to use the new spaces that “They’re still classrooms, so even though [students] might just be doing school work, it’s important to understand that when they’re done, the classroom should be ready to use [for teaching].”

A list of available classrooms is posted on the Opinion Board.

Diane Huang is also a member of the Upper School Council.