Is reading for Lit Hum easier while sunbathing on the steps of Low or curled up with a cup of hot cocoa?
The beginning of spring semester—a time of wintery chills, 20-degree temperatures, and the promise of snowstorms—sends most students fleeing to the indoors, but not necessarily to hit the books.
Blake Pollard, SEAS ’11, said that from what he’s seen, study habits weaken as the temperature rises during spring semester. “It’s easier to study as temperatures run from hot to cold than cold to hot, because at that point, you’re just waiting for it to get warmer,” Pollard said.
Seated around slices of pizza at Ferris Booth Commons on a blustery Thursday afternoon, Alberto Vadia, GS, nodded in agreement. “Once the weather gets warmer, I’m much more likely to skip class,” he said.
Others, such as Tomoe Sugiura, GS, prefer studying in sunshine. “Spring is cold in the beginning but gradually gets warmer, and I actually find more energy to study,” she said.
Sugiura said that after taking classes during the summer term through the School of Continuing Education, she realized that the warmest months were the most compatible with her study habits.
“I think summer is the best time to study,” she said. “There are less students around, and you feel more relaxed.”
John Felbinger, School of Library Service ’70, GSAS ’87, and a cataloger in the Bibliographic Control Division of Butler Library, said that generally, there are more students in Butler in the fall semester than in the spring semester.
“Some of it’s the weather, I would suspect,” Felbinger said. “Trying to sit out on the steps in December would be a chilly proposition.”
Butler records show that there is a slight increase in both the number of unique visitors and multiple entrances per individual in the fall semester, but offer no conclusive evidence of a seasonal explanation for foot traffic.
For Felbinger, the inexperience of the student body at the beginning of the academic year provides a better explanation.
“In September, you get a whole crop of ‘newbies,’ both undergraduate and graduate, coming into Butler,” he said. “By January, students have gotten themselves pretty well oriented” and frequent Butler less.
“Even if it’s raining cats and dogs, people will find their way here,” Dorian Hernandez, a clerical assistant at the Butler circulation desk, said. “Rain, sleet, or snow, people come here.”
But there was little consensus among the students interviewed on which semester was the most homework-friendly.
Some, such as Logan Guntzelman, CC ’12, said they preferred the fall semester to the spring, and explained that the ability to read outdoors in early fall made it more conducive to studying.
“I think winter’s more depressing. During the summer, you can go read in the sun or get outside to reward yourself,” Guntzelman said.
And once the cold weather hits, Guntzelman pointed to the promise of Thanksgiving and other winter holidays as personal motivation.
Catherine Crooke, CC ’12, also said she found the pressures of work lifted during the warmer months, but favored the progression of the spring overall.
“I had a professor last semester who was convinced that studying became more difficult as we gradually moved toward the deep, dark vortex of winter, and that in the spring, we were moving toward the light,” Crooke said.
She also added that cracking open the books depended just as much on indoor comfort as outdoor. “It was just too cold in Butler at the end of last semester,” she commented, saying that despite efforts to study, she found the heating system insufficient and often ended up going back to her dorm room.
While skeptical as to whether this was an adequate explanation, Crooke admitted that she preferred the spring semester herself.
But for a handful of the students interviewed, windchill and humidity were ultimately irrelevant factors in their ambition to study.
Dahvay Kwon, a student in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, said that in light of his heavy course load, there was constant work to be done year-round, and weather had no effect on his willingness to complete it.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s sunny outside and everyone’s playing,” Kwon said. “We’re still in studio.”
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