Brenna Patrick
Staff Writer
Earlier this summer a student reading room was renovated in the Liberal Arts building to allow students to access a quiet place to study. The room is open to anyone.
English and Philosophy Department Chair Jennifer Attebery said, “We do a meet-and-greet every year for our undergraduate majors in English and philosophy. This year the department decided to combine the event with a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the room but it has been open for use since the beginning of the semester.”
The room is located on the second floor in room 244.
Attebery used the event to thank the department for support in the renovation of the room, as well as the support from the Dean of the College of Arts and Letters Kandi Turley-Ames, who cut the ribbon to open the room.
The room was renovated to fill a need of the student body.
Attebery said the room was paid for from “a combination of funding.”
“The English department put a little of its own funding into it out of our local funds. Also, the dean had some infrastructure grants from last year that we applied for,” said Attebery.
The department funded the removal of a blackboard and refinished and repainted the walls.
Some of the larger expenses included the removal of the worn-out rug that Attebery said had been there since around the 1980s.
“Unfortunately, asbestos abatment had to be done for that,” explained Attebery.
Once the floor was redone, the purchase of both a new rug and all the furniture was provided by the infrastructure grant.
There were previously some worn couches and old long tables in the room that are now gone, and it now seats more people.
It was the idea of faculty, who formed an ad hoc committee, to plan the room to have the series of round tables with lighting on them. The idea with lighting is that it’s similar to the reading room lighting you would find in the Library of Congress.
Attebery said every time she passes the room she sees at least one person, if not more, utilizing it.
“It’s not always the case that you will build [a room] and [people] will come but in this case it was true. We built it and they came,” said Attebery. “It obviously has fit a need and students have perceived it as a quiet study place.”
The room is unlocked as long as the building is open from 7 a.m. to around 5 p.m. Students can stay in the room as long as they like but can only enter the building during these hours.
“Anyone is welcome,” said Attebery.
There is wireless available and plug-ins so students can plug in their laptops. Attebery said that the room previously didn’t have any outlets so she saw a lot of students camped out in the hallway so they could use their laptops.
“You can also look out the window at the mountains and as the trees lose their leaves the view becomes even more spectacular,” Attebery expressed.
Two pieces of student art were donated by seniors Catherine Reinhart and Stacey Barker.
Junior and English major Cara Briggs regularly uses the student reading room.
“It’s comfortable and quiet and it gives me somewhere to read between my classes,” Briggs said.
Briggs visits frequently throughout the week for a couple of hours at a time and said she simply loves the atmosphere and the view.
Senior Jennifer Chappell said, “It’s hard to study in Rendezvous because it’s so busy and there’s so much going on. It’s nice to have someplace that’s quiet.”
