Do you follow the path etiquette around campus?

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he University of Warwick is full of smart people, all from different backgrounds and cultures, studying different subjects and enjoying different things. But throughout my two years, I’ve noticed one thing that seemingly everyone has in common in this place, and it grates me every time I have to leave my room – there is a fundamental lack of courtesy and manners on the many paths around the campus, and in some instances, it would be safer to travel some sort of medieval gauntlet than to try and make it to the library.

Perhaps a shared lack of respect has rendered the student populous blind to the many problems, or maybe I can just see it more because I’m acutely aware of it? Either way, I feel I can’t be the only one who faces these annoyances around our university.

As much as slow walkers bother me, for I walk at the pace of a puma on steroids, I can appreciate that is the way people are. However, there are so many other instances that I couldn’t even find the time to be cross at that.

Let me be clear – if, in that ten minutes between lectures when everyone is moving around, you decide that this is the best time for your friends to form a blockade on the path so you can better speak to each other, and in doing so, you block of the movement of everyone else, then you are rude. This is particularly pertinent by the chaplaincy, and other small paths where only two lanes of people can fit by. I don’t know why you feel the incredible compulsion to have to stand right next to your friend, but it is rude and a nuisance.

I want to single out something that has happened to me twice now – on the path to the side of Tocil Field (one that would take six people to block, easily), I have been forced into the road (and more importantly, into traffic’s way) by people who seemingly lack the capacity to see they and their friends are taking up the whole pathway.

Let me be clear – when a lot of people are going down and up, the middle of the library staircase is not the place to stop for a long chat about everything under the sun. The same is true of doorways – if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would not have believed so many people could stop in the most awkward places, especially when there are nearby seats provided, but it seems that no person can stop in this university unless they are blocking an access point.

And on the subject of doors, I understand that some doors in the university are automatic, but they require you to press a button to activate this. If you dive in front of me or shove me out of the way to get to this button (as happened to me twice on the day I was writing this), then you are rude. (I shan’t comment on holding the door, but my views can be summed up in this single sentence – the University of Warwick is the only place I’ve ever been where someone shut the door on me.)

And another thing – I can’t abide by people in the wrong trying to assume the moral high ground, which leads me onto another issue – people walking on their phones.

Yesterday, I was walking towards a man on his phone, texting. I tried to go around him, but his gait was akin to Brownian motion and we ended up colliding. Only at this point did he look up, and that was to scream obscenities at me. I did not respond, but I was furious.

I can certainly understand that this may seem the most petty rant ever, but the more I go around the uni, the more it seems to me that people simply don’t care for each other. I don’t want to have to conclude that Warwick students lack manners or basic respect towards their fellow students, but it seems that that is the case, and it deeply saddens me. This piece is likely to fall on deaf ears, but just try to show a little care for someone else, and our uni could be so much nicer.