Student groups that favored the distinguished setting of Peirce Lounge as a meeting place must now look elsewhere, as the College has reverted to a previous policy restricting the Lounge’s availability to student groups.

The lounge is now available only for special events such as guest lectures and campus-wide discussions in the wake of the rollout of the new Kenyon Reservation System, according to a Sept. 8 Student-Info email from Carol Duvall, executive assistant to the chief business officer.

Manager of Business Services Fred Linger, also the manager of Peirce Hall, said the College has long conferred a special designation on Peirce Lounge, but that the policy has not been enforced until this year due to administrative oversight. When Linger’s office was moved to Peirce, he said it came to his attention that the furniture in the lounge was often rearranged by students and food was frequently left behind.

Sam Whipple ’16, president of the Kenyon Democrats, said his group regularly had its meetings in the lounge without incident for the last three years. 

“What’s confusing to me is that it can be both an open study space where anyone can go in and spend their time studying, but not also a place where clubs would be able to congregate,” Whipple said.

The central location and casual atmosphere of the lounge make it an ideal meeting place, Whipple said. He is concerned that restrictions on the lounge may lead to it going unused for large periods of time.

“The space itself isn’t being used for many of the events they have said it is primarily intended for,” Whipple said. “The combination of it currently not being used for many special events, and still excluding club meeting time, means that it does end up simply sitting empty for most of the day.”

Linger said he would like to see less conflict between student usage of the lounge and those special events for which it is well-suited.

“We don’t really have another room like Peirce Lounge in Peirce Hall,” Linger said. He added that, while the lounge will no longer be available for regularly scheduled group meetings, students and student groups will continue to be allowed to host non-recurring events there.