The South Campus game room has had a sporadic schedule, reportedly due to student worker illnesses. (Jason Jiang/Daily Campus)
Student worker illnesses have resulted in the South Campus game room being open intermittently over the past two weeks, according to South Residence Hall director, Karen Lohr.
“There were a few shifts of student workers being out last week or the prior week,” said Lohr. “The game room has been fully staffed since about the fourth week of the semester.”
Students were dismayed at the closures. A simple handwritten sign on notebook paper was posted outside the game room by an unknown student in the middle of last week.
The sign, written in bright pink marker, stated, “Hey, can you guys please put the hours of availability for the South Game Room up somewhere easily accessible. In addition please keep them regularly updated.”
The sign was placed in an empty slot where the official hours are supposed to be posted. Several other students have since penciled in sarcastic responses including “no” and “k.”
Hours for the game room were extended this year in response to student feedback, according to Lohr. They are scheduled to be open two hours earlier than in previous years. Despite this, students have often discovered the game rooms closed during their posted hours.
“We’ve gone around campus a couple times and we’ve checked multiple game rooms,” first-semester geoscience major William Stansfield said. “None were open.”
The closures are not exclusive to the South Campus game room.
“Towers is rarely open at their posted hours as well,” first-semester mechanical engineering major Andrew Shepherd said.
The game room provides pool tables, ping pong tables, televisions and foosball to students. Other game rooms include items such as grand pianos. The equipment is supervised by student workers. There is at least one game room in each residence hall complex according to the ResLife website.
For the South Game Room, the scheduled hours are roughly 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday and 12 p.m. to 11 p.m. on the weekends, according to Lohr. This is different from last year where it was open from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday and 12 p.m. to11 p.m. on the weekends.
Sarah McNeal is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at sarah.mcneal@uconn.edu.