Everyone knows that studying is a must to succeed during their time here at the Forty Acres. Some popular places to study on campus are the Texas Union, the William C. Powers, Jr. Student Activity Center and most importantly, the Perry-Castañeda Library. Unfortunately, the spaces provided usually only offer open study spaces, which means that there are several people trying to study in a shared “quiet space.”

Sometimes, students need closed and private study rooms where they are allowed to sit down with ease to do homework alone or participate in a zoom call for school or organization meetings.

UT should provide single space study rooms, or expand current group study rooms at the PCL for students looking to reserve a room for an individual quiet study.

There are some existing options for students looking to reserve a room for group study sessions, but UT Libraries explicitly lists these rooms for groups of two or more people. This means that students who are looking to use a private and closed room for themselves will have to look elsewhere.

The PCL also provides an Interview Practice Room. However, this room is only for interviews and the key must be signed out at the PCL desk on the main floor, discouraging students from even using it in the first place. The interview practice room is not a solution to having a private study space for school-related work and online meetings.

It would be beneficial to students for UT to either add single space study rooms with closed doors or simply extend current group study rooms available at the PCL. This would allow students to reserve self-study rooms without feeling like they’re breaking the rules.

Chris Carter, the director of organizational effectiveness for UT Libraries, considered these alternative options. 

“One of the things that we could possibly do is look at some of our smaller group study rooms. These are the ones that I’m thinking of where I see individual students studying,” Carter said. “I think there’s an opportunity for our service management team to consider whether we should either add some single person rooms to the inventory of rooms that can be reserved, or maybe expand the eligibility of some of the smaller rooms to include just one person.”

Adding closed and private study rooms or extending current group study rooms to single individuals would definitely benefit students. 

English freshman Trinity Ngo has been interrupted several times by loud voices and people walking in the aisles while she is studying.

“I was studying on the sixth floor and although it’s a quiet floor and I was at one of the more independent tables, people walking up and down the aisles is super distracting,” Ngo said.

Creating single space study rooms or simply extending current group study rooms to accommodate one person would help limit unnecessary distractions for students like Ngo who wish to study in a quiet space.

UT should provide single space study rooms, or expand current group study rooms at the PCL to students looking to reserve a room for individual quiet study. This would accommodate all students and ensure their success during their time here at UT.

DonJuan is a Plan II and economics freshman from Quanah, TX.