The library is designed to have three floors where chatting is permitted, yet students love to trek up the hundred flights of stairs to run their mouths on the ONE floor that is suppose to be completely silent.
I don’t know if some were not made unaware of the fact that the fourth floor is suppose to be completely silent or if they are unable to read the sign that is right in front of them as they walk in, but the silence isn’t a recommendation. It is literally the whole point of the floor. Students escape up to the top floor with the expectation that no one will be chatting up a storm so they can get work done.
Yet, they come to find that students are having full blown discussions, on a facetime, or are “whispering” on a call. Whether one is in the cubicles or at one of the ends of the library, we can still hear you clear as day. Sound travels throughout the floor very easily as no one is making noise but you. If you think whispering is going to minimize the distraction, then you are wrong, I fear. Head down to the third floor if you want to be obnoxious and inconsiderate.
In case you didn’t know, as one goes up floor by floor, they are meant to get quieter and quieter. The first floor is meant for complete open discussion, while the second floor is more for inside voices. The third floor is for whispering and minimal talk. The fourth floor is where you are quiet, point blank, period.
It is really not that confusing nor hard to understand. It may be a lack of self awareness but you are not the exception to the quiet rule. The fourth floor is not where you have debriefs about your past weekend plans or how your girlfriend is annoying you. It is meant for those that want to be productive, and if you are not coming with the intentions on locking in, then simply stay away. It’s not that hard.
This is even more important as the final week of classes and finals week is around the corner. More people are going to be coming in the library with the intent to truly focus, let’s not be a nuisance.
If you have group work, then simply save yourself a trip up an extra flight of stairs and stay within the first to third floor. If you get a call or facetime, it is not hard to simply decline the call, text the person you are busy, or take the call and go down a floor. If you are going to eat a whole buffet and chew like Homer Simpson, then maybe wait to come up to the quiet zone.
It is completely understandable that people need to fuel up when being at the library for an extended amount of time, but to make noise with every movement you make for thirty minutes straight, is extremely obnoxious and distracting.
So for the sake of everyone’s sanity as we enter the final two weeks of finals, do not go to the silent floor if you cannot be silent. If this is too big of a burden to ask, then choose one of the three other floors, super simple. The fourth floor is meant for silence and studying, not socializing.