DOUGLAS COLLEGE uinsy mreorneesse

 

TO:

OUGLAS [
ARCHIVES

Mad Hatter DATE: Jan. 14/75

TrudiAnne King

Staff/Faculty Lounge

 

I suspect that a sigh of relief is going up from many quarters at

the recent announcement that we will finally have staff/faculty
lounges, At last -- no students. Of course, many faculty would

also like to be free of staff, and many staff have likewise expressed
the desire to secret themselves from intrusive faculty -- but be
thankful for small mercies.

I would like to go on record as opposing the idea of staff/faculty
lounges, It seems to me a sad error to assume that staff and faculty
have greater need of a quality environment than do students. I am
personally less interested in escaping from students than I am in
escaping from that hideous cacaphony which engulfs our so-called
cafeteria, and I'm sure that need for peace is dear to many students
too. Further, I enjoy my discussions with students as much as with
faculty and staff, and would certainly appreciate the opportunity for
such exchanges to occur beyond the confines of my lab.

On the other hand, we all need a place to escape routine problems

such as "when is my term paper due", "when will purchasing have that

new furniture", "do you really need that printing job done tomorrow".
This type of escape applies as well between faculty members, or

staff members, as it does to staff-faculty or faculty-student interactions,
Perhaps we could meet these needs by social sanctions and firm adherence
to a "no business" rule, rather than physical isolationism.

In perspective, the acauisition of a staff/faculty lounge seems a

retrograde step which moves us towards "staff only", "faculty only",
and “student only" lounges, and I personally regret such a step.