The Hilltop’s swankiest and sleekest new building at Georgetown University appears to be everyone’s favorite study spot. The Leavey Center, while almost as snazzy, has faded into insignificance. The two buildings are almost the same aesthetically, but Leavey has fewer pretentious fireplaces (it’s practically a Soviet Gulag). You can hardly go a single day without someone trashing poor old Lau and saying that the Healey Family Student Center is by far the superior beast.
They’re definitely wrong.
The Healey Family Student Center is just plain awkward. The name is uncomfortably long and doesn’t really lend itself to any abbreviation, acronym (all hail the convenience of GUASFCU) or shortening (“Healy” is already taken by the famous hall). HFSC seems like the obvious choice of nickname, but have you ever tried to say that fast? Or drunk? My personal favorite alternative to the bulky Healey Family Student Center is the equally cumbersome HealFamStuCen. Can Georgetown please choose their donors more carefully? What with Healy Hall and the Healey Family Student Center, the student body is crying out for diversified names.
My next issue with the place is those little study rooms. They’re great if you happen to strike gold and actually find one. Sadly, nothing matches the humiliation of walking all the way up the hallway in one direction inspecting rooms six through 12 only to have to walk all the way back to bother the studious scholars in rooms one through five. Foiled again! Also, I thank whoever designed them. I like being fooled at every doorway into thinking that the I’ve actually managed to chance upon a room during one of the five minutes in a day that it isn’t occupied by someone looking miserable, completing some endless lab report, paper or online video tutorial.
What can I moan about next? Sorry about this rant -- I grew up in England so I have a natural propensity for cynicism, misery and complaint. I don’t usually display this quality of mine in person because that would be boring, so venting here is the next best option.
Nothing on campus is more pompous than Hilltoss…granted acai bowls are delicious. But when I haven’t heard of a significant number of the ingredients and my pronunciation of acai is rudely corrected the first time I go to an establishment (apparently it’s not a hard “C”), I’m going to judge you and your workplace. Oh and please play your music louder. You’re in the Corp so you have a right.
Of course all this whining about the place’s frustrating name, study rooms and salad bar (I haven’t even mentioned the annoying circular sofas, scarcity of desks and incessant tours) doesn’t stop me from going there pretty much everyday. Yes, I recognize the irony that I’m writing this while gladly sitting in a private study room (I got here at 8:15 a.m). I hope they’ll let me back through the doors after this!
