Rewind to last Thursday. The majority of residents living in Stephenson North, including myself are at an extra credit movie event. Partway through, the RA (basically the floor babysitter) from the 13th floor sends out a mass facebook message to most of the residents here.
The message reads:
"Hey North!!!!
Starting now until the end of the semester, Sun-Thurs nights 8-11PM are study hours in the lounge. This means the TV will not be turned on and only people who are quiet should be in the lounge.
I'm sorry for any inconvenience these study hours may cause. This is supposed to be for the benefit of all and has been implemented on EVERY FLOOR by our RED. Please this time wisely.
Good luck on the rest of your semester!
I hope that you have a wonderful day!! =D"
Starting now until the end of the semester, Sun-Thurs nights 8-11PM are study hours in the lounge. This means the TV will not be turned on and only people who are quiet should be in the lounge.
I'm sorry for any inconvenience these study hours may cause. This is supposed to be for the benefit of all and has been implemented on EVERY FLOOR by our RED. Please this time wisely.
Good luck on the rest of your semester!
I hope that you have a wonderful day!! =D"
I sat in awe for a few seconds after reading the message. A few seconds later, I was in my RA's room delivering my thoughts on the ordeal in my usual diplomatic(ish) way. As usual, my efforts where completely useless, as someone else from my floor burst into the room and informed my RA that the new rule is "FUCKING BULLSHIT."
It didn't take long for us to get together and realize how idiotic these new "Study Hours" are as a floor. Before the night was over, I had written up this petition, and gotten 20+ signatures from our floor alone:
Lounge (n): A place for lounging: a room in a private home or public building for leisure.
Wandering the floors of Stephenson North, one would probably notice a door on every floor labeled “Lounge.” One would then logically conclude from this that the room is intended for leisure activities, per the definition of the word. However, given the new “Study Hours,” it seems as though the word lounge is no longer an accurate description of the room.
We, the residents of Stephenson North tower, find the recent rule changes concerning study hours in the lounge to be unfair, ineffective, and downright ridiculous. The purpose of living in a residence hall, aside from education benefit, is largely to form friendships with fellow newcomers to Pullman. One of the most significant places that this occurs at is on the floor lounges. Speaking from the perspective of the 4th floor, our lounge is the place in which we come to socialize and unwind with our recently made friends. This often occurs in the later hours of the night, after we have finished homework and other necessary activities. The new hours interfere directly with this, as the bulk of our social activities take place in the lounge between the hours of 6 P.M. and 12 A.M. For instance, we often watch sporting events as a floor. Football games often run past 8, and World Series games are likely to be on during this time.
It is not as if the lounge is the only available quiet space to work; Holland and Terrell libraries offer ample space for quiet study, as does the Stephenson library. If for some reason these options are unavailable, I believe that all residents have a room in which they can study.
Wandering the floors of Stephenson North, one would probably notice a door on every floor labeled “Lounge.” One would then logically conclude from this that the room is intended for leisure activities, per the definition of the word. However, given the new “Study Hours,” it seems as though the word lounge is no longer an accurate description of the room.
We, the residents of Stephenson North tower, find the recent rule changes concerning study hours in the lounge to be unfair, ineffective, and downright ridiculous. The purpose of living in a residence hall, aside from education benefit, is largely to form friendships with fellow newcomers to Pullman. One of the most significant places that this occurs at is on the floor lounges. Speaking from the perspective of the 4th floor, our lounge is the place in which we come to socialize and unwind with our recently made friends. This often occurs in the later hours of the night, after we have finished homework and other necessary activities. The new hours interfere directly with this, as the bulk of our social activities take place in the lounge between the hours of 6 P.M. and 12 A.M. For instance, we often watch sporting events as a floor. Football games often run past 8, and World Series games are likely to be on during this time.
It is not as if the lounge is the only available quiet space to work; Holland and Terrell libraries offer ample space for quiet study, as does the Stephenson library. If for some reason these options are unavailable, I believe that all residents have a room in which they can study.
Imagine if a library dedicated 3 of its busiest hours, five days a week, to not reading, working, or doing library related things in general. Sounds pretty similar to me.
Oh, and did I mention that Stephenson North is the only building in all of WSU to have these rules?
The next day, the signed petition was given to the RED (manager of the building) who ultimately ignored it.
That was Friday.
Between Halloween parties and the weekend in general, we managed to calm down on the issue for the most part, until tonight.
Six of us are sitting in the lounge, two doing work, three pretending to, and one sitting quietly watching TV.
The RA walks in, and informs the brave soul that he needs to either work on something or leave. He refuses, and is promptly given an IR (incident report, you get enough, and you get kicked out of the dorm.)
So this guy was given an IR for quietly watching TV in the lounge, which is meant for leisurely activities.
Sadly, the bullshit doesn't end there.
With 4 seconds left on the clock in a rather important sporting event, our RA jerks the TV's power cable out of the wall.
Things apparently calmed down for a bit after that, until the lounge has 4 guys in it. All of them (including the one who was already given an IR) have some sort of work in their hands, and are talking while working.
Talking.
4 IRs later, our lounge is now "permanently" locked.
Oh, and our Kitchen privileges are being threatened.
So, to sum it up: 4 students, while working on homework, were talking. Because of this, we don't have access to a lounge anymore, and we may not be able to use our microwave or sink in the near future.
Lucky for us, we're a bunch of pissy teenagers who will very unlikely simply take this whole situation sitting down.
Something tells me petitioning won't cut it much longer.
And thats pretty much whats on my mind tonight. Also, I've become nocturnal.
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