The Shakespeare Garden? A closet in SPAC? One of those lockable rooms in the Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center? One of these intimate spaces may soon see more action, now that the library will be eliminating a few popular hook-up spots.
These little-known rooms, attached to the women’s restrooms on the third, fourth and fifth floors of the main library towers, are rumored to have been created as “vapor rooms” for menstruating girls who felt faint or dizzy while studying in Northwestern’s early years. And they have housed cots, sofas and adventurous students for as long as Laurel Minott, assistant university librarian of public services, can remember. “The cots were something we inherited,” Minott says. “They’ve been in the library for a long time (but) we’re not sure what their use has been.” Minott came to work at the library 15 years ago, but she is unsure how long they’ve been there. Nor can she recall the last time they were cleaned. “When we put the shelving in the rooms, we took the sofas out,” Minott says. “They were filthy.”
Yes, shelving. The rooms are being converted into storage areas and now contain metal shelves used to hold books to make room for renovations. The library is taking part in a campus-wide project to make the campus accessible and safe for people in wheelchairs. Space needs to be made for “rescue areas,” where people in wheelchairs can go in case of emergency. So these nookie nooks have been reassigned as storage space. Most of the rooms are currently locked to prevent students from entering during the renovation period. And when they are filled with books, they will likely remain closed.
For the students who have hooked up in the library, this development is disappointing. “If the library really needs more places for storage, it would be really dumb to leave those beds in there,” says Weinberg sophomore Michelle Faierman, who has herself corrupted the library. But Olympia Portale, a Communications sophomore, has an easy solution: “Well, I’ve made out, hardcore, near the vending machines,” she says.
