Open the Game Room

The Game Room is a place on campus that should be open to students at any time of the day. Located in the basement of the Elizabeth Phillips Academy Center right below hubs of social activity like Grill and Agora, it offers equipment such as ping pong tables, a pool table and foosball tables.

However, if you have ever gone down to the basement searching for this place, you most likely came upon a dark and empty room with a locked door, unrelenting no matter how many times you jiggle the handle. On the rare occasion, you might come upon it with the lights on and door open, but the room is nearly always deserted with the exception of the Game Room proctor.

With this system in place, rather than being a common area for students to socialize and relax, the game room has largely been abandoned. The two ping pong tables stand in the center of the room, but until recently, every paddle had some defect. They are either lacking the rubber faces, missing half or both sides of the handgrip and some are even left without a handle or splintered off violently at the base of the racket. The pool table’s surface is scuffed up, which is to be expected, but a couple pockets are held onto the table with pushpins and one has fallen off completely.

However, the saddest sight has to be the foosball tables. Not a single one of the four foosball tables is in working order. Some playing surfaces curve up so high that you can barely move the back line of players. Not a single actual foosball can be found in the Game Room, leading students to use ping pong and even golf balls as replacements. Many foosmen don’t have legs or have fallen off the rods and hang down forlornly no matter how aggressively you spin the handle.

While all of these issues are significant, the biggest issue of all with the Game Room is the scheduling. Even if you completely ignore the incredibly worse-for-wear equipment, chances are, you still won’t be able to access it. Since Game Room proctors need to be in the room before the EPAC building monitors can unlock the room for students, this room stays locked most of the time.

Because of this, there is minimal order in the opening of the Game Room. No schedule is posted for the predicted open hours, leading students to simply try over and over, hoping that they can find a good time. And even if groups of students get lucky and find a time that seems consistent, the Game Room will close sporadically since Game Room proctors have no way to notify potential visitors that they can’t work on that day.

This is not to say that the Game Room is beyond hope. Given its prime location and incredibly useful equipment, this area should be set up to be a more prominent meeting place and socializing area for students. It seems that this change can be made with a very simple policy change.

First, to address the completely inconsistent scheduling, the position of Game Room proctor should be completely abolished. While this position most likely came into existence due to students destroying Game Room property, having a fellow student watch over visitors does not seem effective at all. The equipment that should be there for all to use have fallen into disrepair, to the point where no one can enjoy it.

As a replacement, it seems perfectly reasonable to allow students to visit the Game Room whenever they want, to use it as a place to relax during frees or go to when a proctor wouldn’t be available. Since the position of building monitor is already well-staffed, an occasional passing through of the Game Room would basically provide the exact same service that the current Game Room proctors are supposed to. In the event that the administration or whomever is in charge of the Academy Center refuses to trust students, they could instead create some sort of check-out system in Agora. Students who wanted to play in the Game Room could sign their name when taking out paddles, cues or foosballs and get checked off when they return them.

This change in policy would make the Game Room more accessible to everyone, and in turn, encourage more funds to be put into its upkeep, create another place for Exonians to relax and socialize, and greatly benefit the entire community.