Poll: playing with blueprints
Suppose your students’ office space has room for only two of the following three groups of items. Which do you choose?
1. Sink, microwave, and coffee maker
2. Sofa
3. Round table with chairs and whiteboard
Additional information: there is no conference room or women’s bathroom on the floor, and no common kitchen or lounge in the building (at least, not that I have found yet).
Discuss.
We don’t have any sofa in our lab’s common area, and it never came through my mind that we might need one. We would, however, miss the sink, microwave, water fountain and round table with chairs a lot if they weren’t there (the coffee maker is in one’s student office), and would also need a white board in here if it weren’t for the conference room right across the hall. So, I’d choose 1 and 3.
Comment by Citronella — May 23, 2008 @ 3:38 am
Time to get creative…do a couch with a small little table that holds a coffee pot. Next to the coffee pot, put hand sanitizer. White board behind couch (or get slightly daring and tack up heavy newsprint and let them use markers).
Comment by Beth Ritter-Guth — May 23, 2008 @ 4:21 am
#1 and #3, definitely.
Comment by Jane — May 23, 2008 @ 4:42 am
Is the couch supposed to be a subtle hint to your student that sleep is no longer an acceptable reason to leave the building?
Comment by Lab Lemming — May 23, 2008 @ 4:55 am
The break room on our floor doesn’t have a sofa. Then again, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t have a whiteboard, either, but there are plenty of them in the lab itself.
Comment by El Fields — May 23, 2008 @ 5:51 am
#1 and #3, absolutely. Round table will promote socialization a lot more than a sofa. Plus microwave is critical for office quality of life!
Comment by Andrew — May 23, 2008 @ 6:38 am
Definitely #1. Probably #3, but I’m tempted to say #2 with a whiteboard on the wall behind the sofa. Depends on whether you want to promote the office as a place of productivity (round table and chairs), or the hangout spot (sofa).
Comment by ScienceWoman — May 23, 2008 @ 4:10 pm
I would go with #1 and #3 because it strikes me as the most flexible of arrangements.
Comment by Academic — May 23, 2008 @ 4:18 pm
I think I agree. The round table takes priority over sofa, and microwave/sink/coffee is essential. Too bad about the sofa, though.
Comment by drshellie — May 23, 2008 @ 7:51 pm
Coffee: essential, but dangerous (because communal coffee worth drinking is rarer than first-submission NIH funding). Whiteboard is key. I’d sacrifice sofa first, and make sure that there’s a supply of suitable toys to fidget with while pondering through trains of thought.
Comment by Ewan — May 24, 2008 @ 3:29 am
I’d prioritize 3, 1, 2. We have a futon and almost never use it. The big table and white board are indispensable.
Comment by ecogeofemme — May 24, 2008 @ 11:16 pm
I’d say leave out the sofa. I’m a student, and I like to be able to get drinks, make snacks and so on without leaving the work area. The round table in our office means that we all eat lunch together each day and chat.
Sofa isn’t essential and after a few years is likely to be a bit grubby and unwashable, but tables and simple chairs wipe down well.
Comment by flinny — May 26, 2008 @ 9:11 pm
1 and 3, for sure. I currently live out of a lab and don’t even have an office- a microwave and somewhere to keep my food and drink is definitely the most sorely missed.
Comment by Candid Engineer — May 27, 2008 @ 6:02 pm
Who else is going to use the kitchen, only the students from the office or the whole floor? As you say there is no kitchen around… If people from other offices are to use it, those students will have no peace of mind. It is hard doing research while someone is grilling sth in the microwave for the 100th time that day.
Comment by Ana — May 30, 2008 @ 8:28 am
As with many of the others, I’d go with #1 and #3.
Comment by TomJoe — June 3, 2008 @ 4:00 pm
I’d go with sink and sofa.
There are plenty of tables and chairs in research buildings. There is never anywhere to lie down when you worked too late and need a nap (or if you’re stuck late taking timepoints).
Comment by msphd — July 6, 2008 @ 10:25 pm
apparently i’m weird. as a student, I would say (from personal experience in my own student room) so sofa, table and whiteboard are far more important than even, perhaps, the computers! Then again, we don’t have a sink, and we keep the coffee maker on the microwave on a crappy little table that’s going to give out soon–in which case it will be moved to the floor. We don’t have a women’s bathroom or any communal kitchen or anything on that floor either, so the three of us girls have to go downstairs (along with the 2 female profs they put on our floor–excellent prior planning went into their office assignments)
In short, I would say #2 and #3. You can put the coffee maker and micorzapper on the floor and get necessary water from the water fountain or go downstairs to wash your hands (or just wait late enough at night, announce into the men’s room that you’re female and will be entering, wait for no response and enter–only use the sinks!)
Comment by lar — July 14, 2008 @ 12:27 am