Nonsense Building Hours Examined

By JINMIN LEE ‘26

    Imagine a group of student-athletes who want to train in the gym for their upcoming season. They make spare time to go to Downer by finishing their homework on Saturday morning. However, as they scan their LionCard to enter the athletic facilities, the doomed sound of denial hits them; the red light flashes as the notes descend condescendingly. They stare back in disbelief; just yesterday, on Friday evening, they had trained till 8 P.M. Why is it closed on Saturday at 6:00 p.m.?

    Even worse, on Sunday mornings, when students want to get to the gym early before brunch, the athletic facilities open at 11 A.M. Thus, students are forced to exercise with a full stomach for no reason. One could call this a conspiracy created by Andover to beat Exeter on the Niche rankings. Exeter ranks third because it has an “A- grade” in athletics, whereas Andover boasts an “A+ grade.” Exeter can’t be stopped in any other way, so they are capping us in this unfair way.

    Now, think of students who want to study extra hard right after midterms on Saturday. Their dorm rooms are crowded and loud, which makes it impossible to focus. They also need their friends’ help on a couple of challenging subjects. They opt to study at the library. But then again, the library card reader sounds the rejection music on a Saturday afternoon. Isn’t this the time students are encouraged to study? Strangely, the library opens for the entire day on Sunday; it encourages students to cram their work the day before.

    Students thus opt to procrastinate: they scroll on their phones, play video games, or get more stressed about their missed workouts and piling work ahead of them. It may sound like a conspiracy, but making weird building hours may be Andover’s best shot at beating us.