Prep Study Hall Expands to Lowers

Dorm heads recently decided to expand Study Hall, which is currently offered to only preps, to lowers in order to strengthen attendance. 

The prep study hall was approved this fall, allowing preps to check out of the dorm and head to a faculty-supervised room in the basement of the Academy Center at 7:15 pm on school nights. The program, however, was met with low interest this past year.

“Dorm heads wanted to expand the use of study hall to more kids so that they can try it out,” Dean of Students Melissa Mischke said. “There are some people that wanted to require it for struggling students, some wanted to expand it to any student that wanted quiet study space, but we decided to ask faculty to modify it to include tenth graders.”

Reactions to the decision were mixed, with most students and faculty viewing the expansion as a necessary decision. Some, however, saw the idea of the study hall itself as detrimental to students’ independent time management skills.

Prep Sanjana Rana believes that the study hall will be well-utilized. “It is a great opportunity that is not being used well enough by preps,” Rana said. “I am really happy that it is being opened to lowers, because I had a few lower friends that were saying during fall term that they would definitely go if it were open to lowers.”

English instructor Rebecca Moore saw the expansion as a way to encourage a culture of campus-wide emphasis on work during study hours. “Quiet dorm rooms, common rooms, the library and a study hall can all offer students support in getting to their evening work in a timely way,” she said.

Some lowers saw the incorporation of a study hall as a benefit to their study habits.

“For people who really need it to be quiet or for those need an atmosphere when they need to be focused, I think study hall is definitely helpful,” lower Sophie Byrnes said. “If I had a lot of work to do at night, and was in a mood where I thought I would be distracted, I would consider going.”

Lower Preeya Sheth added, “Especially for students who live in dorms there are a lot of distractions in the dorm because your friends are right there. So I am sure it would be useful to go somewhere else to do work.”

Many students said that completing the night’s work interruption-free is often extremely difficult and rare.

“When you are in the library, the common room, or your own room, it’s so easy to get distracted, but when you are in a really sound and quiet room and all you have is your work, it is hard to get distracted, especially when everyone else around you is doing work,” Sana said. “In other places, everyone is talking, eating pizza, or playing games, while in study hall you do your work and when you are done you can just read a book.”

But many members of the Exeter community saw the Prep Study Hall as excessive and unnecessary, since many quiet environments already exist on campus.

Science instructor Townley Chisholm said that Exonians have found a way to work independently since the start of the Academy, and that a study hall would hinder the development of this skill. 

“We have asked—and should continue to ask—students to be mature enough to regulate themselves and their work,” Chisholm said. “As faculty time and school resources are diverted away from building the best possible classes and into support services, so will the quality of academics suffer, both because teachers no longer have the time required to spend on their classes and because we will be tempted to admit more and more students who can not do or choose not to do their work.”

Some faculty are opposed the reasoning behind study hall as a whole and believe attention should be focused into improving study environments in the dorms and the libraries.

“An idea of having a quiet space for a student to study is good, but the study hall program is unnecessary,” history instructor Kent McConnell said. “One, if the dorm is not quite enough for students to study, it indicates a problem, and two, the library should definitely be a valuable place to study. I was surprised that the library is as loud as it is, almost a social gathering, so maybe they should rethink the library and create a social space as well as a place to get work done.”

Due to its low attendance, the committee has been looking for ways to improve study hall towards the end of the year. 

“The group meets in the basement of the Academy Center, but my hope is to move it to the third floor, so that the whole floor can be devoted to studying. There would be a conversation room and two quiet study rooms,” Mischke said. “I would also like to change the time from 8-10 p.m., so that it matches study hours and students do not have to miss a club. Since it starts at 7:15 p.m., it might be an inconvenient time and so students may not want to go.”