It is no secret that this school’s Library Learning Commons serves as the gathering place for many of this school’s schmoozers. Have a canceled class? Meet you in the library. Have a free? See you in the library.
While having a social life during high school is necessary and very important in keeping students sane, the go-to gossip location should not be one of the only areas in this school where studious students go in search of a quiet, working area to actually get work done. Instead, the Student Faculty Administration should hasten the creation of the student union, located in a portion of the cafeteria’s alcove.
The space, created by the SFA last year, was a result of strung-out, detailed deliberations. After the idea of a social alternative to the Library Learning Commons popped up at the very beginning of last school year, subcommittees were formed to accelerate progress and the project seemed destined for success.
The SFA held a student union design contest to spur students’ creativity and help make the student union a reality. Junior Liran Bromberg, an SFA member, pocketed a $100 gift certificate with the winning design that called for counters and tables to line the wall of windows. Construction officially began in May, but construction seems to have stopped in May as well.
The only noticeable changes to the seldom-used space in the back corner of the cafeteria have been a painted wall and the addition of a few red stools, a test run of Bromberg’s plan that will eventually include counters and tables lining the wall of windows.
SFA members need to accelerate the development of the space, not only for the SFA’s pride, but also for all of the students who wish they could have a tranquil work environment without YouTube videos blaring and shouting matches between library tables.
Granted, student government is not the most effective political machine. SFA members try extremely hard to make their ideas into a reality, and they deserve credit for their efforts. Oftentimes, SFA proposals are immediately met with stifling resistance and few projects actually get completed. For a proposal to successfully pass through the debate process is an achievement in its own right.
However, many students only have the foggiest idea of the SFA’s purpose, no doubt partly due to the lack of recent SFA accomplishments. This fact makes the success of the student union all the more important, so that the SFA proves it can follow through something that clearly improves students academic lives.
SFA members should accelerate the student union’s completion not only for the sake of all of those students in need of a work environment that actually condones productivity, but also to produce tangible evidence of the SFA’s many commendable efforts.
