Carrel culture brings levity to seniors' thesis deadlines

Despite the dread associated with thesis writing in the carrels of Firestone Library, some seniors have come up with creative ways to survive life in the multi-storey dungeon.

Seniors Mark Harlan, Ben Miller and friends set up a put-put golf course among the stacks to cheer themselves up.

"We had a lot of distractions to lighten the mood in Firestone," Harlan said. "Me and my roommates had a group of two 2-person carrels together. And then some of the other roommates would come over, and we had bought two mini-golf sets from CVS one night and we'd take them back in the stacks of the B-floor and set up little put-put courses. And we'd do that at about 11 o'clock every night."

There is, however, a limit to what students are allowed to do with their share of space in the library.

"They have to keep the windows clear of decorations, so that they don't obstruct the view for people looking in. They can't put more bookshelves or filing cabinets [in the carrels], and they have to keep the floor clean. They can't stack books all over the floor — that type of thing," April Miller, Head of the Access and Carrel Office, said.

So many seniors spend time near their carrels that Firestone becomes a meeting place.

"[My carrel] was on the B-floor. That's where lots and lots of people have carrels, so it was kind of like the place to be during Spring Break," Caroline Churchill '03 said.

And even if many seniors didn't get to enjoy a real Spring Break, some were looking forward to later vacations.

"We had a post-thesis trip to Florida, so we got a big poster of a desert island and put up pictures and made a countdown to our trip," Chris Marks '03 said.

Other Firestone dwellers found more amusing ways to entertain themselves. Marks said one group mimicked the scene in "The Shawshank Redemption" in which an inmate plays music over the loudspeaker, broadcasting it to everyone in the prison, by playing the music from the movie on a laptop at maximum volume, directing it over the balcony and down to the C-floor of the library.

Some seniors had much tamer experiences in their carrels. Churchill was assigned to one of the five-person carrels — usually called "party carrels," she said — but found she was the only one to work there routinely.

Katie Prentke '03 said she and her carrelmate didn't decorate their carrel and used it to store books. Neither one actually wrote her thesis there, according to Prentke.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

And some seniors have a particular distaste for the library. Annie Harrington '03 was assigned a carrel, but gave it away.

"I think that Firestone made me more stressed out than actually just being able to be on my own in a place where not everyone was consumed by senior thesis land," she said. "I think I went in, looked at how small and oppressive it was and decided there was no way I could be a sane individual by spending hours of my day locked in that little space."

Harrington wrote her thesis in "random" classrooms and in the basement of Robertson Hall, which houses her department, the Woodrow Wilson School.

Those rising seniors who do want to partake in the Firestone experience next year can request a particular floor and a carrelmate — or carrelmates — right now, according to Miller.