Fieldnotes Reflection

I decided to split the student center up into three corners. The first corner being corner number one which consist of the view of Billy Bear Grill, The Asian Cuisine, and half of the Sub Connection. Corner number two gives me full coverage of the Sub Connection and partial view of Billy Bear Grill and partial view of The Wingery. And finally corner three gives me full view of the Pioneer Pizzeria, the couch section, partial view of The Wingery, and also partial view of the Sub Connection.

This week’s observation was in corner three. I was only able to observe on Friday this week, which led me to a possible overall question, “Is the Student Center generally accessed by residents or commuters?” This question came to mind because I noticed how empty the student center was on Friday compared to how pact it usually is during the week days (Monday-Thursday). So I automatically assumed that either the student center is occupied by residents who goes home for the weekends, or it is occupied by commuters who generally does not have class on Fridays.

Knowing that this project is based off of observation rather than assumption, I plan on interviewing multiple students and asking whether they commute or reside on campus. Maybe this will also help with my observations as well because I have been seeing a lot of students eating/sitting alone. I can also ask the students what year they are in as well and then I can put my observations together and see what leads to this.

My observations leads me in so many different directions and so many questions left to be answered. During my observation in corner three, I have noticed that out of 33 people, 16 were sitting and eating alone. Out of the 16 people, 5 were girls which eventually led me to think, “Why are the guys more inclined to be alone then the girls?” But that can be anything, because just as they say that girls don’t like to go to the bathroom alone, who knows, maybe girls aren’t likely inclined to eat alone either.

I don’t want to get too deep into my observation, but I did break everything down into tables, and how diverse the tables were (race). I also wrote down if they were mixed with different genders as well as with different races. I did the same thing fort the people sitting alone. I wrote down how many were of different races, and split them up by gender.

As of now, I’m not really clear of what my main focus is just yet, but I can honestly say that the more I observe and jot down notes, the clearer the project becomes to me. I have so many questions to be answered, but as Professor Myers said, I have to weed out which ones have an obvious answer and keep the ones that are not exactly clear on the answer, and find an answer through my research and observation.

-Rosie G.