BAKER LAB—As Steven Yates ‘29 settled in for his 9:05 AM organic chemistry lecture on Wednesday, he felt at peace. He had found a whole row of seats to himself near the back of the auditorium. As Yates pulled out his iPad and placed his laptop on the adjacent seat’s desk, a sense of satisfaction washed over him, content with the abundance of personal space. This bliss lasted all the way until 9:04:59 AM, when another student stumbled into Baker 200 and haphazardly collapsed into a chair just 5 seats away from Yates.
The last-minute arrival, later identified as Dillon Stine ‘29, was out of breath and drenched in sweat. He pulled out his notebook and immediately began scribbling down notes from the lecture, apparently unbothered by his blatant disrespect for physical boundaries. “I only had 15 minutes to get across campus for this class,” Stine claimed. “I was just looking for an empty seat near the back.”
Still, Yates feels disgruntled. “He didn’t even ask if that spot was taken before he sat down,” Yates reported, still fuming. “I mean, obviously it wasn’t, but who the hell does he think he is?” Yates reportedly spent the rest of the lecture glaring at Stine, not even paying attention to the professor.
At press time, Yates was considering whether to bring 6 backpacks with him to each class in order to reserve seats around him.
