Visit the Baseball Glove Lounge or Central Library during the day and you'll find a disproportionate number of sophomores studying, sleeping or hanging out at these main campus locales. It's not that the Class of 2010 has a stronger work ethic or enjoys spending free time in Sarratt more than any other class - it's that most sophomores live on The Commons.

For years, students who lived on Peabody but had classes on main campus found it convenient to simply say goodbye to their residence halls in the morning and essentially camp out on main campus during the day. Have a one- or two-hour break in between classes? The general consensus is trekking back and forth to and from your room is just not worth it.

As more and more Commons residences open, and the average walk from residence rooms to classrooms lengthens, the number of underclassman Sarratt day-campers can only be expected to increase.

On the opposite side of the coin, fewer upperclassmen are now granted permission to live off campus, which means Sarratt will be the home-away-from-home for fewer off-campus seniors.

The result? A great deal of the students stuck spending their weekdays away from their residence halls and killing time on main campus will be first-years.
If Vanderbilt is truly committed to making the first-year experience as good as it can be, the university cannot focus solely on The Commons. Instead, the university should act to improve the quality of weekday life at main campus hangouts, specifically for those who will be stranded there for large blocks of time.

Rather than just watching how the Class of 2010 uses The Commons and monitoring how the buildings are broken in, the administration must also examine how sophomores use main campus and how this usage has changed as more and more students reside on The Commons.
One such improvement may be to install lockers in Sarratt for first-year students so they don't have to lug around four classes worth of books all day. Sophomores have traditionally complained about this problem, yet it remains unresolved.

It may be time to finally add some pool tables to the Student Life Center for those who don't want to sit around idly. Improving on-campus lunch options would keep morale high among Sarratt day-campers and, of course, would also be appreciated by upperclassmen. Adding more comfortable seating in Rand has already been a big help to the day-campers, but more should be done.

Keeping most daytime events on main campus rather than moving them to The Commons and making Central Library feel less institutional may also help.

In other words, while Vanderbilt invests heavily (and wisely and deservedly) in The Commons in order to improve the first-year experience, these new facilities should not be the be all and end all of its plan. First-year students will spend more time than ever before in central facilities on main campus. No longer will they be able to head back to Branscomb for a quick nap during a 50-minute break or run over to Vandy/Barnard to grab books for their next class.

Sure, The Commons is great when students are there, but when they've got a two-hour break between classes and they're a 15-minute-one-way walk away from their housing, life can be tough. Vanderbilt should be prepared to make the inconvenience of being stranded on main campus as manageable as possible. Main campus life is, and will continue to be, a big part of the first-year experience.