Academic Commons
The Academic Commons in Mudd was a project completed in the summer of 2007, and opened on August 28. The installation of the Academic Commons included an extension of operating hours of Mudd (i.e., the stacks) to 2AM on weeknights (Sunday through Thursday).
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[edit] History and Planning
The Academic Commons was introduced with the following goal: "[To] provide centralized and coordinated research, information, technology, and learning assistance for Oberlin students. It would include an adjacent café that provides academic community space designed to encourage faculty-student interaction. It would bring together or coordinate a variety of services that are currently available in separate locations on campus and also introduce some new services."
In August of 2006, The Academic Commons Planning Committee selected archiectural firm DesignGroup to plan and build the Academic Commons.
[edit] The Dining Part
One component of the project involved walling off part of the first floor of Mudd to install a dining facility similar to that of the science cart, named after Oberlin's first professional librarian, Azariah Root. Azariah's serves coffee, tea, juice, and other drinks, as well as candy, chips, and pastries. Some of the items on the menu are specially designed for Oberlin, including the Azariah's Blend coffee, the "Muddachino", and a variety of Obie pastries (using student recipes?) The cafe area also houses current newspapers and periodicals, and has seating.
As of the 2007-8 school year, Azariah's was open from 8-10 AM and 2-11 PM Monday through Thursday (7-11 PM on Sunday), with the actual cafe area open whenever the library itself is.
[edit] The Rest
The Academic Commons also includes various renovations to the first floor of Mudd:
- Two individual all-gender toilets
- Six group study rooms
- An "electronic classroom"
- A "multimedia lab"
- More space for computers
