Misconstruction | Don't like being in the spotlight? Then these doors are a nightmare

Those who arrive late for a lecture often want only one thing. To shuffle to their seat as quickly and inconspicuously as possible. Preferably without anyone noticing. In the labyrinth called Oudemanhuispoort, this is possible, provided you take the right door... if you don’t, exactly the opposite happens. The spotlights are full on you and you are literally and figuratively the centre of attention; coat and bag still in hand, beads of sweat on your forehead.

The crux is that four Oudemanhuispoort lecture halls - D 0.08 and D 0.09 on the ground floor and D 1.08 and D 1.09 on the second floor - each have two doors that open right next to the stage. Still standing behind one of those doors, you often don’t realise it at all, it turns out.

Startled student

UvA linguistics student Hannah (22) saw it happen the other day when she was sitting in lecture room D 1.08. Suddenly, a student appeared next to the podium, after which all eyes were immediately on the newcomer. “Startled, she looked ahead,” says Hannah, mimicking her startled facial expression. “She clearly didn’t expect to come out of there right away.”

To avoid that, many students always choose one of the two doors on the Slijkstraat side, where you can walk in and out unseen. Through the back entrance, so to speak. One of them is former CSR chair Noah Pellikaan, who has just completed an exam for the Literary and Cultural Analysis course in lecture room D 1.08. “I go through this door very deliberately,” Pellikaan says with a smile.

Although it can be confrontational for the person taking the “wrong door” to be immediately in the spotlight, the people in the room often do not mind at all. On the contrary, says Pellikaan. “I always find that a nice break from my exam or lecture haha.” His lecturer, Timothy Yaczo, also calls it definitely not disturbing. Laughing: “I’m already happy when students manage to find the room in this maze.”