Resources
If you’re looking for a quiet place to study, or a place to get some help with your Latin, look no further. In the Modern Languages building, you’ll find two rooms devoted to this task. The Classics (and Medieval) lounge in ML 245B is a second home to a lot of students, providing a great space where you can chat, sneak naps, eat lunch, and check your email. Right next door, in 245A, is the reading room, which hosts a library containing most of the seminal works in the field, and serves as a silent study room.
I was on campus yesterday for the first day of classes, and took some pictures. Here’s our lounge. Notice the friendly students, comfy couches, and helpful appliances which have been donated by alumni. Okay, just the appliances were donated. The students show up on their own, and the department brought in the couches.
All of the art in here was created by students and donated, and there’s quite a bit of it. Almost any time during the school day, you can find students from first year to the graduate program working here between classes. It’s also the social hub of the department, and upcoming events can be found posted on its walls or on its chalkboard (not shown here but not sold separately).
If you’re looking for something a bit quieter, try the reading room next door. It has a number of the texts you’ll be working with in various classes, as well as resources for essays in both translation and the original language. Every year the student society pursues grants to increase and improve our collection, in order to bring you a more diverse range of sources. Our reading room also has a few sets of Latin and Greek card sets which were made and donated by students, flash cards whose effectiveness I can personally attest to. My own cards aren’t there, mostly because the set never got finished.
The reading room is devoted to silent study and study groups, and while the lounge can get rambunctious, little of the sound tends to travel next door. Both rooms are also located just upstairs from ML’s Diner, which serves hot and cold food until 2:30, and a Tim Horton’s with hot coffee until 3pm. So that’s the lounge and reading room, just a few of the resources the department offers. If you’re a student starting in classical or medieval studies, come and say hello!
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