With half of the semester already completed, Montclair State University students are in perennial “save my grades” mode. Students are either flying to Cafe Diem, Harry A. Sprague Library or someone’s dorm to study.
There is only one issue with these study plans: if you need quiet to study instead of side chatter, the flicking of someone’s pen or someone chewing obnoxiously on their gum, then you might be out of luck. The root of student strife is the fact that Montclair State has an incredibly small number of independent study rooms and areas on campus.
Grades are very important to us students because we pay thousands of dollars to go to this university, and the only thing keeping our grades up is studying and putting in the extra time to know the information we are being taught. But studying becomes a problem when all of the study rooms are occupied or distracting because of the glass exterior.
Study rooms on campus are private rooms located in certain buildings, such as The School of Communication and Media (SCM) or the Feliciano School of Business. In regards to the School of Business, these rooms do not need a reservation. Any student can just walk in and study.
On the other hand, the SCM building lets you stay in the study room with or without a reservation. It all depends on if you get lucky enough that no one reserves one of the rooms. As for reservations, a student would have to be registered through R&R, which is a system that SCM students use to borrow equipment like DSLR cameras and audio recorders. This means not just anyone can reserve a study room.
For some odd reason, with all the new construction on campus comes a lot of glass. The glass may be aesthetically pleasing, but it causes a problem for those that become easily distracted by their surroundings.
It also becomes a problem of privacy as someone you might know can just stop in and distract you from studying. When it is time to study, having no distractions whatsoever is preferred to be fully focused on the material.
Universally, the library is known to be the number one place for all students but it seems that the library can also be distracting, as there is no privacy there. Again, there can be some sort of distraction of a friend passing by, but the library has also moved their printing station onto the entrance floor.
Previously, the printing station was in the basement of the library but has now been moved a level above. Now, the printing station is in a tiny room where four to five laptops are spread on two wooden desks. The printers are not even in the same room. Students have to walk across the hall to the printing room.
Once you are done printing, you have to walk back to the laptop room to sign out. With students running in and out, it becomes distracting for students trying to focus on whatever is laid out in front of them.
All in all, the university is at a loss for study rooms on campus. As a place where students educate themselves, it is important to create more study spaces. The school would be providing a place for students to cancel everything out but their studies.
