Students sat at crisp white tables configured in a seminar style around a classroom on the second floor of 65 W. 11th St., listening intently to a journalism professor describe next week’s assignment as she leans into her elbows on the front table.
BANG. The table suddenly folds under her, flinging a laptop and a glass full of coffee onto to the floor. Everyone gasps, “What the hell?!”
Sound familiar? Lang students and faculty are appalled by the volatility of the work tables in their classrooms, prompting administrators to look into replacing some of the hardware.
The work tables, located in Lang and the University Center, are long and white with two supporting legs. Underneath each tabletop is a handle that when turned, allows it swing vertically and to fold flat against the legs for easy storage.
But this storage innovation has also become a hazard that interrupts the flow of classes.
“When you put too much pressure on one side the tables bounce up,” said Lang student Adeline Manson.
“They’d cause bursts of laughter, sometimes multiple times throughout the class. It was just disruptive to the classroom,” she added.
Faculty agreed.
”I think the top is not screwed in on the table, so when people lean on it it starts to fall off,” said Associate Professor Wendy Walters, who teaches a class in room 261.
Community frustration, however, has not provoked anyone to file complaints with university facilities management, administrators said.
The school has yet to receive any formal complaints about the tragedy of the terrible tables, according to Marla Applebaum, the administrator who ordered the desks, and Stacy Dishman, who oversees building maintenance.
“I checked our work order system and we received no complaints,” Dishman told the **Free Press.**
Despite the lack of communication repairs are underway. Applebaum told staff to investigate the issue and reportedly found that several work tables at Lang are behaving oddly.
“We’re looking into replacing the hardware so that the problem that you’re experiencing or that faculty is experiencing won’t happen anymore,” Applebaum said.
NiQyira is currently an Arts in Context major at the New School. She joined The Free Press in Fall 2013 and enjoys writing for all four of its sections. NiQyira aims to pursue a career in photo journalism, traveling while using photography and writing to explore other cultures. She would like to write for a magazine like National Geographic one day. NiQyira’s hobbies include being the sweatiest girl in the gym, wandering the city with a camera, watching cartoons, writing and eating too much peanut butter.
