Campus offers a wide variety of study spots

By Kevin Cape
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer

After 15 weeks of dragging your feet, procrastination and making sure to do no more than the barest minimum to keep your grade afloat, finals week arrives and your GPA is teetering on the edge of "I've wasted all of my parents' money and all I got was this lousy hangover."

To make matters worse, academic karma has smited you with the dreaded Thursday and Friday finals, while your roommates are celebrating T.G.I.F. (Thank God I'm Finished) after acing their last final before you've even begun.

So here's your dilemma: it's Wednesday night, and you have four exams in the next two days. There is a keg on the way and there hasn't been five minutes without a knock on the door.

The chances you'll study here, according to Snoop and Pharell, are "dropping like they're hot."

It's time to relocate fast. Lucky for you, the campus is chock full of quiet study spots.

"The Library is good because it's quiet," said Kara Csicsai, a liberal studies senior. "If you need to look anything up, it's all right there."

Finals week at the campus library means extended hours. From Dec. 5 to 16, Monday thru Thursday hours are 7:45 to 2 a.m., Friday from 7:45 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday from 10 to 2 a.m., and Sunday from 12:30 p.m. to 2 a.m.

In response to the party scenario, Csicsai said, "I would go to a friend's house and study with them."

Both Parkside and Residence Commons sponsor a quiet study hall in their respective dining halls that include coffee, hot chocolate and snacks. The halls will be open from 9 to 12 p.m., Sunday through Thursday the week of finals.

Christina Torres, a health care administration junior, said she likes to study in her car.

"It gets me away from the TV, and it keeps me enclosed. At home everyone wants to talk and I get too distracted," she said. "I'll do it if I'm early to class, too."

The surrounding campus community is littered with good study spots, which, thanks to the wonders of wireless technology, also include Internet access.

Most every local Starbucks now offers T-mobile Hot Spot service, a wireless connection for your laptop.

Connecting will cost you $10 for a day pass, or $6 for an hour, plus 10¢ each additional minute, and if you are fond enough, monthly and annual plans are available and cheaper for T-mobile subscribers.

The Library Newsstand, a new internet café and coffee shop down on Broadway and Redondo, offers internet access at $2 for 15 minutes, $4 for half an hour or $6 for the full hour.

Now that you know the spots, all that's left is to figure out when your finals are and try to remember what classrooms your classes are in. Study hard, Niners, the president's list is on the horizon.