In a lecture hall of roughly 125 chairs lies a fierce battle. Before school even began, my mentor warned me of the saved seat phenomenon. I honestly didn't believe her, because who would think that professional school students could act so elementary. Getting into a tizzy over who got there first? A saved seat, as if names were engraved on the new, pristine chairs as a form of reservation?
In the brand-spankin-new building, it is hard to imagine the damage past classes imposed on the previous lecture halls. What is now a construction zone used to be a 104 person lecture hall with a class size of 104. As the building aged, the wear and tear of over thirty years was more than obvious, leaving a fight for the "most prized seats."
At UHCO, the professors rotate through the lecture halls. Your seat becomes your docking zone for hours at a time. And, once claimed for the first month, this seat becomes essentially permanent. Students would even "purchase" their seat after graduation, and an engraved plaque would adorn the seat for eternity.
Even in the new lecture room, equipped with more than enough comfortable seats, the tradition of seat saving lives on. I can even admit falling victim to the contagious plague. My prized middle isle seat is in the second row, left side of the room when you walk in. I arrived early every day the first week of school to l claim it and have all intentions of sitting there as long as we have lecture. The first Friday of the semester, we had one lecture in a different, identical twin lecture hall. I arrived after lunch to find my normal row of seats filled with back-row migrants. Without thinking, I sarcastically blurted, "Well I guess since we are in a different room we should all change seats, even though it's exactly the same as the other one." I WAS the caddy, seat-saving psycho I feared!
In a world absorbed by lectures, labs, homeworks, quizzes, practicals, exams, and clinical competencies, simple things like "seat-saving" does in fact help us save something: our sanity. When the only things we can control are the choice of school supplies and which subject to study next, we find comfort in whatever we can claim. Though our seat of choice may not make the difference between an A or B, it is the associated mojo that will. We are young, budding professionals looking for straws to grasp, and we will take anything we can get!
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