(Not enough) space for community in the Catlin Gabel Upper School

Catlin Gabel School’s (CGS) lounges and student spaces play an important role in building community and providing space for students to relax, socialize, and study. Despite general student approval for them, there aren’t enough lounges and they are sometimes misused. The question of who uses the lounges and the atmosphere that creates is an additional factor to consider.

Students in the CAC. Photo By: Lucy Walrod ‘20

The main student spaces on campus include spots that are more study-oriented like the library and the Learning Center and spaces that are more focused on community-building, socialization, and relaxation like the Upper and Lower Creative Arts Center (CAC) lounges and the ninth-grade lounge.

Students are not limited to these spaces, though. The Upper School (US) student body occupies and uses many places for socializing and studying including Vollum, the table outside of the College Counseling Office, Dant 1, the Math Building, the Barn, the Quad, the Outdoor Education Office, and empty classrooms.

“I fundamentally believe that we need student spaces, especially considering how hectic a lot of students’ lives are,” said Brandon Woods, US Dean of Students.

According to Woods, lounges should provide “a place of respite” and an “opportunity to socialize.”

Overall, students seem satisfied with the lounges. They describe lounges as places of socialization and relaxation as well as study in their responses to a survey sent to the student body.

Twenty-nine students took the survey: eleven ninth graders, 10 10th graders, four 11th graders, and four 12th graders. Some students indicated they were comfortable having their quotes attributed to them and others preferred to remain anonymous.

How have lounge/community spaces influenced your Catlin experience? Photo by: Lucy Walrod ‘20

What community or lounge space looks like at CGS has evolved over the years.

In an email received on Nov. 12, CGS alum Meg Patten Eaton, Class of '58, explained how lounge space has changed over time at CGS. When she attended the Catlin-Hillside School on Culpepper Terrace, it was a small school with a mostly female population and a student body the same size as the current ninth-grade class (approximately 75 students). At the time, there was no student lounge and everybody spent their time in the library.

In the 1960s, the school moved to Barnes Road and the student body grew to 120 students. The students had more free time and requested a student-only space. This space, located at the Lower School (LS) end of the Barn, was called the "student room."

In the 1970s, a smoking porch was established outside of the Dant House to counteract the fire hazard of students secretly smoking cigarettes. However, this wasn’t an area of socialization that nonsmokers could utilize.

Due to the discovery of the health consequences of smoking, the smoking porch was closed and indoor spaces were set aside to form what students referred to as a “Community Lounge.”

“In the 80s we had one ‘Community Lounge,’ located in the Dant House, where the current faculty lounge is located,” shared Elizabeth Sabin Rouffy, Class of ‘87, in a survey sent to CGS alumni. “It was important to me that the lounge was centralized. It was the first place you saw upon opening the front door of Dant. It felt welcoming and student-focused,”

“What is now the faculty lounge was the ‘senior lounge,’” when US Head Aline Garcia-Rubio, Class of ‘93, attended CGS. “It was really a student lounge but it was largely occupied by the seniors. Other members of other classes largely did not step into those spaces and that did not feel very community-oriented.”

The US student population has continued to grow, and as a result, CGS is running low on space for student socialization. There just isn’t enough space for the growing student body, which is forecasted to grow even more as part of the school’s strategic plan. Overcrowding is at the root of many of the problems facing community spaces.

Despite administrative efforts to maximize the amount of seating available in community spaces around campus, the school has been unable to provide spaces that are large enough for the growing student population.

“I wish we had more space for lounges,” said Garcia-Rubio. “We do not have sufficient space for all students at peak periods when too many people are free, and there is not a single space where everybody fits.”

Students agree that more places for students to occupy are necessary.

“I think that it would be helpful if there were just more [spaces for student socializing and studying],” said an 11th grader in the survey. “Especially when it is harder to be outside because the weather is getting worse, I feel like it is important to be able to have a place where people can go.”

“Make sure there is enough room for everyone in the lounges, and enough table space,” added a ninth grader.

Beyond the straightforward issue of square footage, there are unexpected obstacles to creating more student space. For example, fire code limited how far the carpet in Lower CAC could spread.

Garcia-Rubio and Director of Facilities Kitty Firth have been working on creating more seating areas for students outside. Garcia-Rubio is trying to install heaters in some of these areas so that the cold will be less of an obstacle to their use.

“Hopefully once the middle school building joins the Upper School, there will be more social spaces for people,” added a 12th grader bringing up a new variable in the discussion around lounge space at CGS. The Middle School is relocating, leaving its building for the US to use. This provides more space to be divvied up, some of it hopefully going to student space.

In addition to the physical space of lounges, how welcoming each lounge feels also contributes to the student experience at CGS.

Most responders to the survey reported that CGS’ lounges are welcoming and inclusive. However, students did raise a few concerns.

Younger students sometimes feel intimidated or unwelcomed by upperclassmen.

At times, as a freshman, I would feel uncomfortable/unwelcome in lounges that have more upperclassmen in them,” added 10th grader Jackson George.

Additionally, the overcrowding caused by limited space can prevent community building.

“Sometimes overcrowding of a space can become overwhelming and it is difficult to feel involved with people,” said a 10th grader.

The administration wants all student spaces to feel inclusive.

“People should feel comfortable and welcome going into any space and that kind of clan mentality or clique-ish mentality is not conducive to everyone feeling welcome in every space,” said Woods.

The school values student-interactions between grades as demonstrated by the many mixed-grade classes at CGS and avoids having grade-divided spaces, with the exception of the ninth-grade lounge.

Multigrade interaction is “an ethos and a value that I put a lot of stock in. We would hope that students would want to engage with a wide variety of students, including [different] grade levels,” said Woods.

Garcia-Rubio is “not a fan” of dividing spaces by grade level.

“School is better when we don’t create artificial separations between one grade and the next,” she said.

She continued that inter-grade interaction is beneficial, describing how a “scattergram of human development” within grades lends itself to friendships that transcend age.

Students fell on both sides of the question of whether or not lounges should be divided by grade or not.

Many students echoed the administration’s viewpoint on the value of multi-grade spaces.

“Lounge spaces shouldn't be specifically designated for one group or another. It would just cause the community to grow further apart. Setting aside specific spaces for studying could be useful, but social spaces should not be designated by interests or grade,” said 12th grader James Lane.

“Don't divide [community space]. It'll get divided appropriately on its own and people will be more happy about it. The only useful divisions are for allocation of spaces for things like studying / social, etc.,” added a 10th grader.

However, there were those who provided an alternative view.

“I feel that the lounges should be separated by grades so younger classmen don't feel that their spaces are taken over by older people,” said ninth-grader Grace Mueller.

Grade-specific areas can help strengthen the bonds between classmates.

”It's nice to sometimes have a space for just you and your class, in order to be able to bond more with the people in your grade. I find that this can be an excuse or opportunity to get to know more people that I'm likely to have classes with throughout the years,” said 10 grader Hazel Walrod.

Although people tend to hang out with people from their own grade, the ninth-grade lounge is the only official grade-based lounge at CGS. An exception was made to promote class bonding and provide newcomers to the US with a space of their own to help their transition.

Woods explained that the ninth-grade year is different “from the other three grades both in transitioning into the Upper School and for a good number of them transitioning into a new school completely. I do think grade identity is important to establish in the ninth-grade.”

“I think that having a space just for the freshman [sic] is really important, especially in the beginning of the year when they are trying to find new friends, etc. it is really helpful to have a space where they can find the other freshman [sic],” added a 12th grader.

Ninth grader Nadya Poisac-Nguyen has found the ninth-grade lounge helpful in her transition.

Ninth-grade lounge. Photo by: Lucy Walrod ‘20

“Hanging out in the freshman lounge has helped me to get to know my classmates better, and it's nice to be in an area with only people in my grade,” said Poisac-Nguyen.

Despite the vital role of community spaces for students at CGS, lounges are sometimes closed. The closures generally occur due to lack of cleanliness and concern for property, such as leaving behind food or damaging furniture. The ninth-grade lounge is closed at least once per year.

This year, the administration closed the CAC lounge spaces for a week due to graffiti in the CAC bathroom. Time during an assembly was devoted to discussing the reasoning behind this decision. Reasons hypothesized for the graffiti included teenage impulsiveness, self-expression, disrespect, and acting out.

Some students felt that the assembly was inefficient and too big of a deal was made of the graffiti.

“Hyper focusing on [the graffiti] only makes it worse,” said a 10th grader.

At the assembly, however, US math teacher Kenny Nguyen brought up the “Broken Windows theory of social disorder.” As little as one rock through the window of an abandoned building is blanket permission for passersby to vandalize and disrespect the building.

Nguyen used this to illustrate that all it takes is a small laxing of community guidelines to invite the complete unraveling of community guidelines. As soon as something small is let slide, larger things will follow.

Students suggest entitlement, carelessness, comfort, and lack of ownership for the spaces as possible causes for the clutter of the lounges.

“I think we take them for granted,” hypothesized ninth-grader Stella Alvarez.

“There is a culture here of not really caring,” added George.

“I honestly think many students just aren't aware and expect clean up to be done for them. I think the students are just often not thinking about the space and instead thinking about work or friends and leave the space behind. I don't think it’s intentional, just teenagers being teenagers,” concluded a 12th grader.

“I think the problem is that we don't hold ourselves and our community members around us accountable enough when it comes to lounge/community spaces,” hypothesized 11th grader Dylan Lian. He continued that part of the lounge-related problems this year and in the past originated from “people taking for granted the hangout spaces that they reside in.”

“We need to stop to appreciate [the people who clean our spaces] and the service that they provide to this wonderful campus. We need to show some respect to not only the spaces we inhabit but also to the people that clean up after our messes,” Lian concluded.

Woods blames overcrowding in part for the disrespect of lounge spaces. Many people crowded into a space creates mess and noise. He suspects that “there is a greater sense of responsibility when there are fewer people in a space.”

“Since the spaces are communal, people don't feel the urge or responsibility to clean them up,” said Lane.

Garcia-Rubio gives this sentiment a name, the “tragedy of the commons,” a term often associated with climate change. The “tragedy of the commons” is how when a resource is used by a collective and not owned by one person, nobody ends up taking care of that resource.

For the most part, lounges are a positive piece of the CGS experience and an example of the freedom that students have. The tensions around student space is something for CGS to continue to work through as a community.

The addition of more space for students in the future, like the Middle School building or more seating options outside, will help reduce overcrowding and increase the ownership students feel over their spaces. However, it is not a complete solution.

CGS’ lounge and community spaces are a constant work in progress and students are central to maintaining lounges as spaces that build community.