Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

Library West is in Need of More Booths

1.     The opportunity I choose to talk about throughout the duration of this course is the potential addition of booth in Library West. Every day, Library West is occupied by thousands of students who all ultimately have the same goal: to sit in a booth. Many students, my friends included, often complain how they want a booth at west and find it distracting when they sit somewhere else and wait around for a booth to become available.

-       The Who: UF Students

-       The What: More booths for students to use at Library West

-       The Why: Students have shown to perform better and be more motivated when working in a booth for long time periods

2.     Hypothesis

-       Testing the Who: I think a large portion of those who choose to study at Library West would share the potential need for wanting more booths added.

-       Testing the What: Its actually quite odd to see that UF hasn’t realized this trend that is shared by a lot of the students and hasn’t taken the initiative to add more booths. Library West is large and very spacious and has the potential to make this addition where they see free space. Maybe even consider taking our tables or sections that are not commonly used and replace it with booths.

-       Testing the Why: The reason I believe this is an opportunity because it’s something that gets expressed to me on a daily basis. I always hear my friends say to each other and see it in the Library itself when I’m there, that everyone is always wanting a booth to do their work. Especially during midterms and finals when Library West is at its most occupancy, I think students will feel a lot happier if they can have a booth to spend hours doing homework and studying.

3.     Interviews

-       Student 1: 20-year-old female who is a third year Marketing major

o   In this interview, she started off by saying how she spends almost up to 9 hours a day at west because she is enrolled in a hard business Finance class. She expressed that every time she leaves class and goes to West the first place, she goes looks to sit is on the third-floor booths. She gets frustrated when she has to temporarily sit somewhere else and wait for another booth because she finds it both a distraction and a waste of time to have to keep moving around. She believes this is a common problem shared amongst students

-       Student 2: A grad student who spends many hours at West

o   Upon returning to UF and pursing his masters, this interviewee (whose name I will not mention) expressed he sees this problem as a disturbance since day one. He mentioned how he’s always enjoyed going to West since he first started going here and has seen the same problem linger throughout the years. 

-       Student 3: UF 2019 Graduate who would spend many hours at West

o   For this interview I chose a graduate who would give me another perspective as to how he viewed this situation at his time in UF. He expressed how some days he would decide to stay home instead of go to the Library because he focused more when he was comfortable and felt the odds of getting a booth to be very unlikely. 

-       Student 4: 21-year-old female is who is third year Journalism major

o   In this interview she expressed how she chooses not to do work at West very often, but when she does, she also prefers having the booths with her friends. She enjoys the comfort, space, and outlets that are provided by the booths. She also mentioned how she enjoys it being on a floor that is both quiet and talkative where she can collaborate comfortably with any group work, she has to do. 

-       Student 5: Pre-Med student who is also a scribe at Shand’s

o   This interviewee brought in another interesting perspective to look at that I had not seen before. He expressed how he goes from class, to the hospital for his shift, to West and he highly enjoys the comfort that the booths provide for him. He goes to the Library very tired and sometimes just looks for the booth so he can spread out his work and stay focused. 

4.     Summary 

After listening to each interviewee talk, they brought into perspective many points I had not seen for myself. Starting with the last person I interviewed, many students who are pursuing a degree in medicine tend to find their days filled with lots of work and just want to study in the Library comfortably. Also, it was common for me to hear that students tend to be more motivated to actually go and study in the Library if they were guaranteed a booth. That could have a positive impact on students study habits as a whole.