As you enter the gothic-style double doors of the Baughman Center, the sun shines through the windows. The rows of pews call your name and Lake Alice reflects the sunlight with its calm water. The mood is set for a great, quiet study session.
In a school with more than 50,000 students, libraries can get crowded — especially during exam season. The Baughman Center is a quiet place where few students visit to meditate, study, read, play the piano and even practice ballet on the stage.
Located on Museum Road between Lake Alice and the Lakeside Residential Complex, the Baughman Center is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to sunset and Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The center is closed on weekends for private events such as weddings, memorial ceremonies, bar mitzvahs, concerts from the University of Florida’s school of music and even fraternity and sorority meetings.
The walls, which consist of floor to ceiling windows, create a serene atmosphere. A view of Lake Alice takes students’ minds off of campus life and makes them feel like they are miles away from the university.
Although the center does not provide Wi-Fi connection, students can still bring a book to study or a yoga mat to meditate. Sometimes the lack of Internet comes in handy since hours will not be wasted on Facebook at this study hall.
“I’ve never been here before. I like how peaceful it is,” said Maria Gutierrez, a 17-year-old first year mechanical engineer.
The first thing that ran through Gutierrez’s mind as she entered through the tall, wooden double doors of the center was that, “It looked really calm. It’s a place where all of your bad energy is drawn out,” she said.
The Baughman Center is not a popular place, Baughman Center Manager Lizz Nehls said. Nehls said the center only receives about 20 to 75 students a day, with most people coming to practice on the piano.
The piano and the scenery around the lake are what attract Candice Winter, a 19-year-old first year public relations major. Winter says she visited the center previously with a friend to meditate, but what really drew her in was the piano stationed in the back of the center.
Apart from the piano, the Baughman Center serves as a student’s own private library without the shelves or tables. Students can find it easy to concentrate because there are no distractions. It’s a different environment then that of study halls. The center is as quiet as the fourth floor at Library West but empty like the campus on Sunday mornings.
The easiest way to get to the Baughman Center is by using RTS buses. Students can ride bus numbers 125, 20 or 21. The center also has a parking lot that does not require UF parking decals.