The Oliver Wendell Holmes Library (OWHL) transformed the Freeman Room into a movie theater, complete with pizza, soda, popcorn, and chicken nuggets for a Friday night screening of the original “Jurassic Park.” Organized by the OWHL Student Advisory Board, the night aimed to provide a fun, relaxing evening for Andover students to unwind at the end of the week.
Camille Torres Hoven, Director of the OWHL and an overseer of the Student Advisory Board, discussed the intention of the movie night and the committee’s hopes for the attending students.
“The main objective is simple: to give students a low-pressure, joyful way to be in community. No grades, no expectations, just a chance to have fun and feel at home in the OWHL. Movie night works especially well because it’s easy to join, even if you only come for part of it, and it creates a shared experience that students can talk about afterward. We chose ‘Jurassic Park’ because it’s a classic! It’s fun, a little suspenseful, and genuinely entertaining. It’s a movie night, but it still connects back to the idea that books and ideas are everywhere in the library,” said Torres Hoven.
Athreya Yegneswaran ’29 explained why he attended the event. He noted that the food options, the location, and the movies were all incentives.
“I was excited about the food,” said Yegneswaran. “It was cool to have the entire Freeman Room to ourselves, and ‘Jurassic Park’ is one of my favorite movies. [I’ve seen it] two or three times, but this time it felt a bit scarier, partially because the screen was much bigger compared to my own TV.”
Yegneswaran, who enjoyed the event, observed a lack of students. He expressed a preference for more event advertising, noting that increased promotion could have helped draw a larger audience.
“I feel like not that many people read the Weekender, and [the event] was on the Weekender. It was on a Friday night, so people had things that they wanted to do. Personally, I had thought this was a pretty good Friday night experience. You get pizza, you have good food. So, if there were more advertisements and people knew what was actually going on, I feel like they would have watched it, and it would have been a better experience,” said Yegneswaran.
Derek Curtis, the Programming Librarian for the OWHL, emphasized the importance of the Student Advisory Board in making the library a more accessible place for students. He commented on how the committee members often relay student feedback to the library faculty and noted that events such as movie night reflect OWHL’s evolving role on campus as an academic and social space.
“As sort of the default community center for the school, and we know that a lot of students come through here to use the space for a number of different purposes… [The students] are a little closer to what’s going on in some ways. They know what their friends and peers are doing, what they’re hoping for, and their criticisms of the library that they might not tell someone else,” said Curtis. “It’s really crucial to hear from students, because we want the library to be as responsive as possible to student and campus needs. I feel as though we’re able to get a better handle on those through the student advisory board.”
Curtis highlighted the importance of these school-run events, emphasizing the need for more spaces on campus for students to be comfortable in, as well as the ultimate purpose of OWHL student activities and the Advisory Board.
“It’s very important for the school to provide students with a variety of extracurricular activities to engage in, because I think students seem to be in need of more spaces to come together. [Whether that is] in friendship, to have fun, or to build a kind of community spirit together. I think that’s important work for the school, and I’m happy to help the student advisory board do some of that. It’s all really in the service of trying to provide for the community. Students share good times, talk about their academic work, and just have a space to kind of enjoy being together,” said Curtis.
