Conveniently located near the academic and residential quads, the O’Connor Campus Center — or “the Coop,” as it is affectionately called — is always populated by Colgate University students during the academic week. It is particularly packed during the hours that students gather for lunch, and it can be tricky to find a table for one to sit and enjoy their “Coop quesadilla.” However, for some, the Coop is not just a spot to quickly grab lunch between classes — it’s a convenient place to productively complete one’s assignments for the week.
Sophomores Louisa Clark and Sienna Staver are no strangers to what they like to call a “Coop lock-in,” or a designated amount of time in which they will stay in the Coop to complete multiple assignments. Some would be quick to question this ability to complete homework in such a busy place, but both Staver and Clark find they’re quite productive there.
“I work in a few different places around campus, but Coop is where I prefer to do my casual homework,” Staver explained. “I’m very productive there and love to work while I eat.”
Clark echoed Staver’s notion, who said she’s never really distracted by other people’s business in the Coop. In fact, makes her more productive.
“I like the noise and the accountability of being near other people,” Clark said. “I am absolutely productive when I’m in the Coop.”
Furthermore, both Clark and Staver agree that completing homework in the Coop makes the work itself seem less intense than if it was completed in another study spot.
“I think it’s pretty casual, which I love, because then my work doesn’t feel as stressful as it does when I’m in the library,” Staver explained.
This casual nature of working in the Coop can also be attributed to the social environment that it inherently provides. Considering the small student population of Colgate, it is almost impossible to spend a couple of hours in the Coop without seeing familiar faces and chatting with friends. For Clark and Staver, this makes their homework time also become social time.
“I rarely plan to meet people in the Coop, but my friends also love working there so I usually see someone while I’m there,” Staver said.
“It depends on how productive I need to be, but usually I complete my homework with friends,” Clark agreed.
Yet for some students, the social nature of the Coop dining room, where Clark and Staver complete their tasks, is simply too distracting. This is true for sophomore Nick Larson, who finds he is substantially more productive when completing his homework in the Coop’s computer lab — a quieter, less social place than its upstairs counterpart.
“I think I like studying in the computer lab because it’s a very focused environment in terms of noise level, and the monitors make it easy to have multiple things out at once,” Larson explained. “It’s also easy to have the printers right there and it’s close to the dorms. There’s never very many people there, and Coop is right above if you need a snack.”
And, despite Clark and Staver’s love for working in the Coop, they find that they — like Larson — may sometimes need a quiet place to do work. Both find that instead of going downstairs to the Coop’s computer lab, they are more productive in different buildings altogether.
For Staver, she finds that the homework she has to complete determines where she will complete it.
“For midterms and tests, I go to study rooms in Burke. Essays in the library,” Staver said. “[I do] all other homework in the Coop.”
Clark has a similar schedule, alternating between Persson Hall and the Ho Science Center.
“I love the Persson bridge and the Ho classrooms for long readings,” Clark explained.
The O’Connor Campus Center is much more than a dining location, as it provides many different areas to work on a political science reading or tackle a math problem. For those who like to work in social settings, the dining area may be a hidden gem to try. For those who prefer to work in quiet spots, the Coop computer lab may be for them. Nevertheless, the Coop provides many atypical study spots that students like Staver, Clark and Larson find to be most productive.
