A student's perspective: at the Writing Lab

Below is a short essay written by one Melanie Hoshall for a Writing 1 class.

A High Rate of Distraction

     There are people sitting on the floor working on laptops. No, this is not the latest venue for the Occupy Wall Street movement. It's not a protest, although maybe it should be. There is just no room for these people to sit at the crowded hardwood tables shared by up to six students at a time. There are no available chairs for them to sit on.
     This is the IVC Writing Lab and it is simply inadequate to student demand.
     Aside from a lack of seating, there's also the noise. There are constant "excuse mes" as elbows are bumped or a bag knocks into someone's chair when a person squeezes down the narrow aisles. Whispered conversations accumulate into unintelligible babble. Add the conversations with the teachers who are there to help students, and the room is a living study of distraction.
     I fall into the "easily distracted" group. If two people are talking at the same time near me, I have to watch the mouth of the person talking to me to understand what he or she is saying. For me, the noise in the Writing Lab makes writing there like trying to write in the middle of Times Square on New Year's Eve.

     While I acknowledge that my concentration ability is impaired, that does not get the Writing Lab off the hook. It is one seriously uncomfortable place to study, even for people who aren't easily distracted. I worked on fulfilling my time requirement in the Lab by plugging in my earphones and listening to soothing music while I was writing. My impairments also allow me to use one of the two workstations reserved for challenged students and a butt-friendly chair on wheels placed in the Lab. Why on earth a person should have to be challenged to get such common-sense seating is beyond me. Those students sitting on the floor may be more comfortable than the ones sitting on the hostile hardwood chairs. No wonder people avoid the Lab until the end of the semester. Okay, to be fair, they would do that anyway. But the Writing Lab does not have to provide so many excuses.
     On the other hand, the average age of most students is less than half of mine. They are also a generation already living life at a high rate of distraction. They appear unable to walk, drive, eat, or go to the bathroom without their cellphones. The conditions in the Writing Lab might not even register with them since there’s no app for it.
     Those students sitting on the floor of the Writing Lab are trying to sneak in their required hours before they are discovered and tossed out for being a fire hazard. Maybe they are not aware they have cause for protest. After all, it's the end of the semester and it's only for a week or two. Who would they complain to and who would care if they did?

   – Melanie Hoshall

The passing of time leaves empty lives

Waiting to be filled

The passing of time

Leaves empty lives

Waiting to be filled

I'm here with the cause

I'm holding the torch

In the corner of your room

Can you hear me?

And when you're dancing and laughing

And finally living

Hear my voice in your head

And think of me kindly

Chandos retrieves his hat (from the ring)

K. Schmeidler

     Two brief factoids regarding Ray Chandos, who was recently nominated (along with Kathy Schmeidler) for President of the IVC Academic Senate. A friend reminds me that, on two occasions in recent years, Ray submitted dissenting reports to accompany the official accrediting reports. Gosh, does anyone have copies of these things?
     I’m also told that, this morning, Ray wrote the senate requesting that his name be withdrawn from the list of nominees for President. Evidently, he was unaware of Schmeidler’s nomination when he nominated himself (or permitted someone to nominate him). Now that he is aware, he withdraws and (I’m told) believes that Kathy will make a fine President.