Observation #1 - The Agora

I observed the students within the Granville Towers Agora last night during dinner. The Agora is set up with separate cafeteria lines that contain different types of food and a table area where there are large tables for about 10 people and small tables for about 4 or 5 people. There is a lot of open space between tables. One thing I observed was that there were many individuals that were sitting by themselves. A lot of these people either had something to do or a computer or book in front of them. In the corner of the Agora there is a big screen T.V. that always plays some type of sporting game. 3 or 4 tables surround the T.V. Each of these tables had a group of guys at it, all of them eating and watching T.V. at the same time. There were very few tables that included girls and guys. Many of the girls interacted with other girls and many of the guys interacted with other guys. The girls sat in tables of around 3 or 4 and the guys either sat in a large group of around 5 or 6 or sat alone. The norm of the Agora seems to be that guys control and watch the T.V. while girls leave the guys alone for the most part and converse among themselves.