With the four-week session of summer school ending this week, Eastern’s campus has resumed its usual hustle and bustle for final exams.

While most students certainly do not look forward to spending the first week of June studying for final exams, the warm weather provides many different places to study.

A simple walk across Eastern’s campus shows that students are migrating out of the Booth Library, using the nice weather as a change of scenery for studying.

Deborah Fennema, who works at the library’s reference desk, said during the summer session, the library sees significantly smaller crowds of students.

“I would say that we get maybe one-tenth of our regular amount of students during the summer,” Fennema said.

Fennema said the library is usually busiest around dinnertime during the week, and credits the earlier arrival of students to their condensed hours.

Because the library is only open until 10 p.m. during the summer, more students are choosing to study elsewhere, including outside.

John Zappa, a senior elementary education major, also said his study habits change during the summer.

“Since it’s nice out, and because of the condensed workload of my classes, it’s easier for me to study outside in between my classes,” Zappa said.

He also said even though classes are only in session for four weeks, he has to study more vigorously than he would normally. 

Although classes are much shorter, students are still expected to learn as much as they would in a regular semester-long class.

Because of the immense amount of material often covered, many students started studying for their finals earlier in the summer than they normally would in the regular school year.

Rachel Mayer, a junior accounting major, said she prefers regular classes to taking classes in the summer.

 “I don’t like it because a week of school is like a month of regular class,” Mayer said. 

“I have to pretty much study every day after class because of how much stuff there is.”

Nala Tin, a sophomore management information systems major, also prefers normal classes.

Tin said she likes how short the classes are in the summer, but she prefers taking classes during the regular school year.

While the length of the first summer session may appeal to those looking to earn quick credit hours, the dense course loads that accompany many classes can sometimes be daunting to students.

Most students said, while they are only taking one or two classes during this session, they feel they have to work much harder and prepare further in advance than they would for normally scheduled class.

John Downen can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].