In a perfect world, Hackley students would use the Sternberg Library to indulge in their studies and use the space to connect with friends. However, due to the size and the conditions of the freshman hallway and the sophomore bubble, more underclassmen have begun to congregate in the library. People have turned something that was originally built for the purpose of being a silent space to study and do work into a place of socializing.
A main reason why freshmen are not accustomed to remaining in their designated hallway is because for the first month of school, the hallway was blocked off. This was because of a pipe leak where the entire hallway pretty much flooded. Due to its limited accessibility for the first few weeks of school, the 9th graders had to find other places to hang out which became a norm for them even after the leak was fixed.
The seniors and the juniors, who normally don’t contribute to the problem as they are older and have more work to do, have nicer places to hang out, such as the Junior hallway and the Senior lounge. However, freshmen and sophomores are given rather run down hallways and in turn migrate to the library. Along with the general state of the hallways, they are certainly not big enough to hold the entire sophomore and freshman classes. Usually, everyone would go to Akin Common to do their work, but since it is getting colder out, less people want to spend time outside which leads to more people hanging out in the library.
Along with the noise in the library brought by the underclassmen, there is a seating limit in the study rooms and at the tables that the library holds. This becomes a problem when students from the Middle School are given an entire side of the library that is blocked off for them during their study halls. This limits the amount of students who can fit in the library at one time and can make it a louder place simply because of the nature of middle schoolers.
Additionally, study rooms are almost always taken up. A study room is a place to quietly study and get work done without the noise brought by the rest of the school. People now go into study rooms to hang out with their friends rather than productively work, which can be annoying for other students who have pressing assignments that need to be done. In an ideal world, there would be more study rooms so that more students can be productive throughout the day.
One of the main reasons why students flood the library is because of the limited seating in the freshmen and sophomore hallways. This can be fixed by an increased amount of seating in each hallway, which would make it somewhat of a more appealing area to hang out.
