Hackley’s beautiful and beloved campus makes the school stand out and is a cornerstone of what makes Hackley special. The Johnson Center, CCAT, Chapel, and Library are just a few of the places that really make the campus pop and look so beautiful. However, the place where most Freshmen and Sophomores dwell, and the so-called “lounge,” is really an ugly place. Dirty seating and nasty floors are topped by a ceiling that is falling apart, and the worst part? The place was built last year.
The root of the problems with the lounge is that it is too crowded. Much too crowded. This causes the lounge to get trashed, wrecked, and way too loud to do anything. Now, I am not opposed to lots of people in the lounge, and I actually think that a good place for many to gather is a good thing. However, if the space is as small as the lounge is, this simply does not work.
The way to fix this is simple. Make the lounge bigger. We could combine the freshman hallway with the sophomore hallway and the lounge, making one big room (also, we would have to remove the lockers, but people do not use those enough for that to be a notable sacrifice). Now, people can come down here and hang out, and the density of people would be much less. Therefore, people would wreck less stuff, and the place would be more chill in general.
That being said, the density is not the only problem with the lounge. The place is not exactly visually appealing, either. The ceiling, for one, is literally falling apart, with wires and vents showing. People’s morales get way lower when they are in an inherently ugly place. This is also a disgrace to Hackley’s campus. Imagine you are on a tour that comes through, and the first thing you see is the freshman lounge. Would you come to Hackley? Would you be impressed by the grey color scheme, ceiling, mucky benches, and loads of people packed into that tiny space? They should renovate the lounge and make it much nicer, just like the library.
A new lounge would give Hackley a gathering place that people can go to that is not as quiet as the library, not as cold as outside, and not as isolated as the Johnson Center or CCAT. Administration, listen up, your lounge was a failure, so try again.
