It seems that the SCDS population has developed a completely new connotation for the word “library.”

For most, the Matthews Library is not a place where students go to check out a book, quietly research, or study on their own.

Rather it’s a place to which mobs of students run rampantly to hastily finish their homework due next period; a place where cliques can hang out and chat endlessly; and a place into which students enjoy sneaking food and drinks, only to be caught and thrown out by the librarians.

And this is no new phenomenon; the library problem has existed at the school for longer than anyone can remember.

Librarians Sheila Hefty and Joanne Melinson are forced to throw students out of the library every day when they don’t “follow the rules.”

And, with up to 57 students during each free period, this is no easy task on rainy days, when practically everyone huddles in the library to stay warm.

But the rules can often be too hard to follow. Country Day is a school that encourages collaborative learning and student interaction, so it seems a little absurd to ban students from talking to one another while studying.

Sometimes students deserve to be thrown out. There is no justification for being rude and inappropriate or purposely and blatantly breaking the rules.

But, once a student is thrown out into the cold rain, where are they supposed to go?

Sure, they could go to their free period’s assigned “rainy day classroom,” but more often than not, the teachers there want students to study quietly as well. What if you have no homework and want to take a break from studying to just hang out? It’s called “free period,” and not “study hall,” for a reason, isn’t it?

So with new construction plans underway, we’d like to propose an idea that would benefit everybody—the students, the librarians, and even the performing arts department.

At colleges, the student hang-out area is not the library, but the cafeteria. But at Country Day, we don’t actually have a cafeteria and must use our MP room as a place to pick up food instead.

Maybe it’s time to turn the room into a real cafeteria with tables, chairs, and couches. Then, when students want to use free periods to study in groups, do projects together, or eat while studying, they could do so in this new “student lounge” instead of in the quiet library, which is often occupied by various middle- and high-school classes coming in to do research projects anyhow.

Of course, if the MP room were turned into a cafeteria, the performing arts department would have to move. But this would be for the best as well.

When the seniors were in lower school, the headmaster announced that a brand-new auditorium was in the works and would soon be complete. But about 10 years later, such a building isn’t even in the planning stages.

It seems like a rather important building plan for the school to set aside.

If you haven’t already noticed, the MP room has taken on a few too many “purposes” lately. It’s not only the all-school lunch room, but also the concert band’s and jazz band’s practice room; the location for middle- and high-school on-campus dances; a venue for theatrical performances put on by the lower, middle, and high schools; a play rehearsal room; a location for after-school enrichment classes; a venue for special events and faculty meetings; and much more.

In addition, it’s obvious that both the theater and music departments could benefit from having a real stage—one that the entire audience would be able to see clearly—in an acoustically decent auditorium with seats that weren’t made of metal and didn’t have to be folded up after every show.

And, like the present MP room, the new theater could double as a faculty meeting area or an auditorium for guest speakers.

After a decade, isn’t it time we got to work on creating a quiet library, a real cafeteria, and a functioning theater?