Editor’s Note: All opinion section content reflects the views of the individual author only and does not represent a stance taken by The Collegian or its editorial board.
Most classrooms on Colorado State University’s campus have some sort of combination desk, which is any sort of desk that has a chair attached. The most common type is individuals — those oriented so that the bar connecting the desk to the chair can be lifted, allowing for easier entry. The bar should go under your dominant hand. The other type I have seen on campus is one in which the chair is on a swivel mounted to the desk. After the person using it pulls it out, the spring-locked chair will slide back toward the desk.
These desks are extremely inconvenient for a number of reasons. I am a lefty; I understand the disadvantages that come with this. I do not know how to use regular scissors or left-handed scissors. If I am lucky, my classroom will have, at most, five left-handed desks. It is not the biggest deal in the world; I can still write. Although my handwriting is worse and I sit at an awkward angle, cramming myself in to be able to write, I can make it work.
Another inconvenience is the inability to move. Most of these desks that lift are not on wheels. If I have to move the desk to make more space, or if the room needs to be rearranged into a circle, these desks are incredibly frustrating to move. If you grab it by the desk, the desk will lift instead of being pulled in a direction. If you push it, it will tip forward and dig the front legs into the ground. That desk will not move without putting up a fight. If you want to move while sitting at the desk, it’s difficult. The gap between the front of the desk and the back of the chair is not wide enough, but it is still manageable — if frustrating.
“There are bigger issues in the world, and I can make these awkward desks work. However, they are impractical at best and inaccessible at worst.”
Most of these desks are angled at a slope. You have to hold onto a pencil or else it rolls onto the floor, and picking things up from the floor in those desks is hard. Papers will slide toward the seated student unless there is a weight on the paper. I can not think of one justifiable reason why the desk needs to be at an angle. All it does is make it harder to keep stuff on an already small desk. There is barely enough space on the desk to fit a computer. If there are handouts or you need to sign a form or fill out a sign-in sheet for attendance, you have to write on top of your computer. Otherwise, you risk dropping something.
These desks are simply too small for most people, both in terms of writing space and room in the chair. The desks that lift are simple enough to get in: lift the desk or slide in. However, the chairs that rotate out from under the desks are not as easy. Rotate the chair toward you, sit in it, and unless you are very thin or have legs of steel, you are jammed against the desk. I am a fat girl, and these desks are uncomfortable and painful. The chair sits slightly rotated because it cannot get to its normal position. I force the chair to point forward every few minutes, which results in an aching hip by the time class is over. My stomach is pushed against the chair, biting and pinching my skin.
The chairs also creak a lot. Many fat jokes are about a fat person sitting down and their chair breaking underneath them. I worry, perhaps irrationally, that this will happen to me. In classrooms that have these rotating chairs, many are missing. I don’t know how they break, but I worry about my chair being the next to join the fallen. This fear is perpetuated by the loud squeaking that accompanies me as I rotate the seat to face the front of the classroom.
At the end of the day, the comfortability of the chairs I occupy for an hour is low on my priority list. There are bigger issues in the world, and I can make these awkward desks work. However, they are impractical at best and inaccessible at worst. Desks with separate chairs are a better option for everyone.
Reach Audrey Weishaar at letters@collegian.com or on Twitter @CSUCollegian.
