As Zach Gorton (VI) walked into the Tate Library early on Wednesday during B band he felt dismay: the library’s now three-to-a-table, previously two-to-a-table, policy meant he couldn’t find a seat. As Zach says, “This is why I have an incomplete.” No, obviously this is not the reason Zach has an incomplete, but the fact that students have to sit on the floor of the Tate to do work is ridiculous.
Helena Slotweiner-Nie (VI) was found curled in a ball on the floor of the Tate Library, right next to a table that already had three people, typing an essay. When asked how she felt about the Tate still not returning to its four-to-a-table policy, she said, “Two people on one side and only one on the other? It makes zero sense.”
When we were beginning to return to campus during the hyflex model of 2020-21, the Tate Library implemented its fully masked “two-to-a-table” policy. Because only half of the student body was on campus on any given school day, the same student-to-seat ratio still existed. However, now that the school is fully in-person, the amount of students has doubled while the amount of seats available in the library remains the same.
Recently the library changed its policy to now seat three people per table, with most tables having two chairs on one side and only one on the other.
Why can one side of the table have two people next to each other, but the other side can’t? Why can I sit shoulder-to-shoulder with the 20 people in my math class, but I can’t sit next to someone in the library?
Since Fieldston mandates masks, and has students next to each other in class, it’s a discontinuity in COVID policy to not allow four people at a library table.
I asked Mr. Carey why the Tate Library had changed its distancing policies and what the future looks like. He said, “We had gone to three and when the Omicron variant was raging we went back to two. When the school changed its distancing from six feet to three feet we went to three at a table because you can still spread people out. I cannot imagine us going back to an official four until next year, but you never know.”
When asked if she thinks it’s a good idea to bring back four-to-a-table, Head Librarian Ms. Locher said, “Eventually. It’s a slippery slope, and it’s about COVID restrictions. We don’t have enough chairs and the Humanities class “big group” meets in here several times a week. So there aren’t actually enough chairs to put four at a table. It’s not just the doofus librarians and COVID.”
As the hunt for chairs to fix the bottleneck in the library chair supply chain continues, we still have not returned to four-to-a-table as a part of Fieldston’s COVID protocols. If Fieldston is still uncomfortable with four people at a table, two on either side, then perhaps an alternative solution would be four people at a table where one person sits at each width and length of the table. While we await what future COVID protocols may entail, the library floor has become Fieldston’s hottest table.
You tell ‘em asher!
Great journalism, and well written. Zach: get your work in