Library transforms into ‘Club Hillman’ during finals

Around noon on a recent Sunday, Maddie Starkey and friends were spotted giggling to each other across a table filled with books, laptops and caffeinated drinks.

“There ain’t no party like a Hillman party, cause the Hillman party is mandatory,” said Starkey, a second-year grad student studying audiology, who was enjoying her stay at the Hillman Library by quoting “30 Rock” with her friends.

Every year, finals week comes around, and Hillman Library slowly decreases in productivity as people begin socializing more than they actually study. With over-tired students fueled by caffeine surrounded by their friends and stressing over finals, how can anything get done in Hillman Library?

For most students, it’s a balancing act.

Starkey said that this Sunday, she and her group of friends have been pretty productive as they share notes, sitting around a table dressed in comfy clothes, ready to study. She also said that she doesn’t think that the library is the place to be during finals because it can be so crowded.

Although Hillman Library is not usually open 24/7, as some students request, an exception is made during finals week to allow students the opportunity to study all night long. The Cup and Chaucer cafe on the ground floor keeps students motivated by offering free coffee and tea during the hours of 7:30 and 8:30 a.m. and between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. As soon as the word “free” is advertised, a line of students file down to receive that extra boost of caffeine.

Steve Laughran, a senior psychology major, said he generally uses Hillman as a study spot, and he likes to study wherever he can find an open table. On the same Sunday morning that Starkey and her friends were studying, Laughran sat with a friend on the first floor of Hillman, ignoring the textbooks that surrounded them and sharing sports stats. They cracked jokes back and forth while enjoying a study break.

“The closer it gets to finals week, the less productive it gets here on the first floor, because where more people are, the less productive I am,” Laughran said.

He said that he would rather study at home, but he simply cannot focus there. He used to study in the Nationality Rooms in the Cathedral of Learning, but that didn’t last long.

“The janitors used to chase me out in random hours of the night,” Laughran said.

He also recounted one time when he went to the bathroom, and they locked his stuff in a Nationality Room. He then had to go find a janitor to unlock the room so he could retrieve his belongings.

He recommends the library because it will not randomly close on you.

“I can make my own rules and dictate my own hours at the library,” Laughran said.

He said that if you actually have a sense of productivity, then you could get things done at the library. However, there are many who come to the library without that motivation.

“The people who make it Club Hillman are the ones who have no desire to study, who come to say hi to all their friends,” Laughran said.

Two friends, Nikki Caruso, a sophomore biology major, and Mike Householder, an undecided sophomore in the business school, said that they could relate to the common argument that Hillman is overflowing with students at the end of the semester. Sitting at a table filled with friends and their textbooks, the group laughed while discussing the craziness that occurs around finals time.

“I saw a kid studying in the bathroom one time,” Householder said, explaining that he found a student studying against the wall by himself.

Caruso chimed in, saying that one time while she was studying on the first floor of Hillman, one student interrupted the quiet by farting really loudly.

“No one could really laugh because everyone was trying to be quiet,” Caruso said.