The overflow room in the Commons is no longer been open to students during lunch periods. The room was closed after it was decided that the extra space was no longer needed.

At the beginning of the year, the administrators had discussed whether or not the room would even be necessary this year, since the amount of students has decreased. However, it had not been officially decided until late September.

“As the student population has gone down a bit, there’s plenty of seating out in the main area, and so I’d say if we can keep students out in that main section, then it’s easier to supervise everyone in one location, that’s sort of the goal.” said Jeff Blankenship, an administrator at FHN.

The closing of the overflow room has been met with a very different opinion by many of it’s former occupants. These students are mainly concerned about what will happen when the senior courtyard is closed, as that will force all of those students indoors.

“Soon the outside courtyard is going to close, and that means all the people from the courtyard are going to have no place to sit,” said Cora Harms, a former occupant of the overflow room. “Especially since 4C is the biggest lunch, it’s going to be a big problem because there will be no seats left in the cafeteria.”

One of the students who previously sat in the overflow room, Noah Plodzien has started a petition to reopen the overflow room. The petition was begun in early October, shortly after the closing of the overflow room. The petition currently has about 150 signatures, but will not be presented to the administrators until it has obtained at least 200 signatures. Plodzien got the idea from a friend, Ambre Ellis, and decided to go through with the plan.

There are currently no plans to reopen the room, however, if seating becomes an issue the room may be forced to be opened once again.