Weighing the pros and cons of campus’ homework hotspots
It’s Sunday night. You have a paper due in 12 hours and a paper due right after. You need to hunker down and get to work. Where’s the best place on campus to do so?
Luckily, you’ve got some options.
My favorite study spot is the Reilly Center Café. The RC is a nice place to hang out and get some work done during the day. While the slightly louder atmosphere might deter some, the availability of food and comfortable booths are definite pros for the RC. The main drawback, however, is the hours. While the RC Café might be a great study space during the day, it closes at 7 p.m. on weeknights, which means you’ll have to relocate before real study hours come around. This is my favorite spot because I have to be in the Reilly Center for a lot of my other priorities, so having a space right in the heart of campus that is close to everything works great for me.
Coming in as the second best, the Friedsam Memorial Library offers three floors, including a quiet floor if you need absolute silence. The library can also be a social hub, and you’re bound to see a few of your friends doing work in there as well. That’s one pro and one con of the library; there’s the social aspect, but sometimes being too social in the library can be distracting. However, with tons of tables, cubicles and nooks and crannies to study, the library offers by far the most space on campus to study. It’s also open until 1 a.m., which means you can work real late on that paper. The library is the best when it comes to true “studying” space; the sheer amount of tables, availability of computers and printers and the social aspect make it hard to beat.
Next up is the first of two 24-hour buildings on campus: the Swan Business Center. While the second floor closes at night, students have access to 103, 107 and 109, along with the Atrium. The classrooms provide plenty of space to spread out and get down to business studying, but there are only three available, so if other students are using them, you could be out of luck. If you secure a room, go ahead and study all night, since the building is open at all hours. This is my personal favorite if I want to get a bigger group together to study.
If you’re in need of a study spot open past 1 a.m., Café La Verna is another popular stop. Open until 2 a.m., this hangout features a fireplace and food and drinks available for purchase. The Starbucks-like atmosphere offered in La Verna makes it a prime location for late night procrastinating. It’s also a great spot for studying with a friend (or study dates). The drawbacks are the small table space and lack of a printer in the building. For anything besides writing a paper, I find La Verna to be difficult to use because of the table sizes. The coffee available for purchase is a great perk, though.
The newest building on campus, the McGinley-Carney Center for Franciscan Ministries, is the other option for a 24-hour building to study in. The atmosphere in the Great Room is great for studying, but the lack of much table space throughout the building is a downfall. The full kitchen doesn’t really make up for the lack of a printer, and the study rooms are hit-or-miss if they’ll be unlocked or in use. So while the McGinley-Carney Center might be open all night, it’s not an ideal study spot.
Another location available to all students is their dorm room; however, I know nearly no one who can get any major studying done at their desk in their room. Too many distractions and the proximity of a comfortable bed can make studying in a dorm tough, although if you can do it, your own room provides benefits like your own space; availability of books and materials, which could be forgotten travelling anywhere else; and the ability to decide volume level depending on your style.
While I love doing work in the RC Café, I can’t be there late; and while the McGinley-Carney Center might be open all day and night, the building doesn’t offer many other benefits for hardcore studying.
No place on campus is perfect when it comes to finding a place to do homework. The library can be packed and loud, some buildings have closing times and others don’t provide enough pros to outweigh the cons. The nice perk of having multiple places is trying out the different spaces and finding out which works best for your style of studying.
