Walking through the hallways of Peltier Hall has become a hazard.The problem, as most people have figured out, is facilitated by the influx of confused freshman at the start of the fall semester, but there are several contributing causes.

One is the difficult, almost impossible and incredibly inconvenient layout.

In Peltier, there are three crossovers between two long stretches of hallway. There are numbered signs on every corner, supposedly to direct students, that tend to make the traffic worse as students stop to figure out how they could’ve possibly missed their classroom.

Walking out of class, it is no wonder why a student gets turned around and starts going the wrong way. It’s quite strange to think you’re walking towards the quad when you end up by the road.

A portion of hallway traffic should be attributed to students running around in circles, trying to find the exit.

The hallway rush is also, in part, desperation to find the restroom.

There are four public restrooms in Peltier. There is a women’s and men’s on each of the two floors, on opposite sides of the building. The downstairs women’s restroom is underneath the men’s restroom upstairs and vice versa. Once the bathrooms are located, most students discover that it can be quicker to go to another floor when in a rush.

However, with the circular layout of Peltier, locating the revolving rooms may take several weeks.

The amount of students lingering in the hallways doesn’t help matters. It’s typically easier to go with the current, or difficult not to, but that can end up taking you down a longer route to your destination.

These lingering students aren’t just the confused freshman who have no idea where their class is, when it is or how early to arrive so as to not be in the way of everyone else. They are also the students who have suddenly decided that this will be the semester they will attend every class. Of course, we know this never works.

So now the halls are filled with students who know they won’t be returning after the second week but feel they must take up the space anyway.

It’s commendable that these students want to at least try, but must they stand in the way?

We don’t just mean standing in the middle of the hall. That happens year round. You know, those people who walk five in a group and expect you to flatten against the wall so they can pass? Not only do we have those self-important people to contend with, but now there are students who have decided they should be the authority of who may or may not enter classrooms.

What we mean is, Peltier Hall has acquired self-imposed hall monitors.

It’s not official, but this semester, it’s become a common occurrence to see students not just standing in halls, but in open doorways to classes not their own.

Even a simple “Excuse me” is not enough to move these figures.

We understand the confusion at the start of a new semester, the impossible navigation of Peltier Hall and the need for hallway traffic authority, but the best solution would simply be this: Stay out of the way. I’m late to class!