Effective Study Spaces on Campus

In a school like St. Lawrence University, it’s easy to find nooks and crannies to study in. But is there a best place to study on campus? As the semesters sails by at a rapid rate, and panic rises as projects get bigger and bigger, finding the best place to study may be in your best interest. How does one know what the best place to study is? With a variety of spots all over SLU, it might feel overwhelming to find a place that fits your needs for studying. Between the three libraries on campus there are over 1000 seats to study in.  

“People need to find out where they study best” Director of Libraries John Payne says. He mentioned the variety of open spaces in the Owen D. Young Library, ranging from treehouses, study rooms, and the Josephine Young room if you are looking for an old fashion study spot.  

Despite all the space we have in the libraries, do students actually use these spots? “Depends on my mood, but [I] mostly [study on] the third floor of the student center or the green room. Depends on if I need the silence, or the white noise kind of in the background” said Erica Kurash ’24.  

While it’s very common to see students around campus all hours of the day, it’s not uncommon for people like Blake Bittorf ’25 to be studying in his room or even studying at work. “I study at the PQRC”, said Cai Lemieux Mack ’23, who gets his work done during his shift at the Peterson Quantitative Resource Center when he’s not tutoring.  

It’s clear that there are quite a few places to study around St. Lawrence. As you wander around campus looking for your space, you might be wondering, what makes a good study space?  

Dr. Greene, a professor of Environmental Psychology talks about what makes good study spaces on campus. He describes a variety of ideas about how to find a space that is without distraction but is not too comfortable. You don’t want to be lulled to sleep, but you don’t want to be uncomfortable. He mentions that being close to nature can be helpful. “There is some pretty good evidence that access to a window, and what we call biophilia, which is access to something that is alive, something like plants or water, those can help in creating comfortable study spaces.” Dr. Greene stated. St. Lawrence is lucky to have a tree right planted right in our library, which could possibly be the perfect place to study. He continues to talk about how the biggest issue of studying is not necessarily the place, but the distractions. If you are constantly distracted by texts and calls- or talking to friends- your assignments are not going to get done, even if you sit at the library for five hours.  

At the end of the day, however, it is universally agreed that it isn’t where you study. It is how you study, and the distractions around you. “Texts, alerts and notifications are the enemy of studying, so the one thing I think students can do to improve their studying, is to turn their phone off and put it in their backpack so they can’t even see it” said John Payne. 

So whether in ODY, your room, the green room- or my personal favorite- the red chairs on the first floor of the student center- take the advice of putting your phone away, tuning out the friends around you, and really focus on getting that studying done.