Some students in Professor of Comparative Literature Arnold Weinstein's lecture course, COLT 1420T: "The Fiction of Relationship," can go to class without ever leaving their dorms. Because of a shortage of rooms, Weinstein has decided to hold some of his course's Thursday discussion sections in various dormitory and house lounges across campus.
Since his course meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1 p.m., which is a popular hour for classes, a shortage of classrooms makes the lounge sections necessary, Weinstein said.
He added that he actually prefers the informal atmosphere of the lounges or living rooms because lounges often facilitate better discussions. "Brown classrooms are awkward learning situations. I have a lot more relaxed give-and-take - which is what you want sections to be - in students' own living arrangements," he said.
Signe Christensen GS, a teaching assistant for the class who holds a section in a Machado House lounge, agreed with Weinstein. "The lounge is actually quite perfect," said Christensen, because the lounge's fireplace and armchairs fit the literary nature of the conversation. "It's more oriented to stimulating discussions."
Christensen said Weinstein generally attracts large numbers of students to his classes and has held discussion sections in lounges for a number of years.
Students in Weinstein's course had varying opinions on the sections. Stephanie Buss '08, who has section in the Zeta Delta Xi fraternity's lounge in Marcy House, said that sections in lounges are not better or worse - just different - because students sit on comfortable furniture. She said she felt students generally don't seem to have a strong preference one way or the other.
But Jacob Johnson '08 disagreed. "I think people talk more (in lounges)," he said. "People feel more comfortable."
Dan Rosenberg '09, president of Zeta Delta Xi and a member of the section held in his house's lounge, also said students seemed to prefer the lounge spaces. "It encourages a more open exchange of ideas, rather than a one-way lecture," he said.
According to Christensen, however, these more relaxed sections often come at a price. About a quarter of the students in her section in the Machado lounge sit on the floor, she said, and there are no available desks or tables.
Another TA, Mariah Isely GS, also experienced the downside of having section in a lounge last semester when she led a section for Weinstein's COLT 1420O: "Proust, Joyce and Faulkner" in a Caswell Hall lounge. Noisy pipes in the room, which is in the building's basement, made it difficult for students to hear each other, Isely said.
Weinstein has more experience than most faculty members with residence halls. During the 1970s, when his children were young, Weinstein was a residential fellow, living with his family in a residence hall on Pembroke College and also at 67 George St., which now houses the Taubman Center for Public Policy. Students would frequently come to his home for sections and study breaks, he said.
Residents generally don't mind the temporary use of their lounges for sections, both Christensen and Weinstein said. "It's in the afternoon, and most people are out of the house," Christensen said. Weinstein said he told his students that they must check with Residential Peer Leaders and other residents before offering the space.
Rosenberg, who volunteered Zeta Delta Xi's lounge for his section, said it is not a space that gets used much during the day.
"We usually think of it as a good thing," Rosenberg said. "We like having new people and new faces."
Weinstein said, though residents don't seem to mind, he has had a few incidents in which his sections have disrupted residents' use of the lounges. Once he was holding a 10:30 a.m. section in a dorm lounge and happened upon a couple asleep on a couch, he said. According to Weinstein, the couple was shocked to wake up to find a professor and 20 other students staring at them.
Both Senior Associate Registrar Robert Fitzgerald and Weinstein were unaware of other professors holding classes in lounges or living rooms around campus. But Mark Cladis, chair of the Department of Religious Studies, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that though it wasn't the norm in his department, he sometimes held class in non-traditional settings.
"I often try to match the meeting 'place' to the text or theme that we are discussing," Cladis wrote. For example, he took his class RELS 0260: "Religion Gone Wild: Spirituality and the Environment" on a winter hiking excursion and a subsequent fireside chat at his house, he wrote.
Nancy Jacobs, an associate professor of Africana studies and history, wrote in an e-mail to The Herald that she once held a section in a residence hall lounge because the assigned room had fixed row seating, and students preferred to sit in a circle.
Since the Office of the Registrar's main concern is scheduling conflicts, it is not necessary for them to be contacted about discussion sections that professors choose to hold in lounges, Fitzgerald said. "We can't dictate where professors hold classes," he said. "Professors have to realize potential consequences."
While residence hall doors are often propped open to give students in the section access to the building, Christensen said safety has thus far not been an issue in any of her sections.
Weinstein said he did realize there are potential risks associated with holding sections in lounges. In one lounge section, he said, he was addressing his students when part of the ceiling fell on his head.
Despite these risks, Weinstein said he thinks students often prefer lounges to classrooms.
Christensen agreed. "It is an unexploited resource," she said. "Students enjoy the whole proximity thing."
