By: T’Neil Gooden
The political science lounge welcomed students to their Poli Sci Cafe and book fair on Nov. 4, a room filled with literature, food, and conversation. In William James 3414, students were greeted with a variety of genres from cooking to Greek mythology.
The political science lounge wants students to understand that the lounge is a place for relaxation and to meet other individuals.
“It operates as a third space for students,” said Violet Reimer, student intern and senior political science student. “I want to kind of foster an environment where students can enjoy themselves, take a break from the day, grab a book, read a book, or just not, just like hang out with fellow students.”
Within James 3414, lives SABCAT Books, a name that sabotages the idea that books must be sold to be read and taken by students. Students are free to take and give books to SABCAT whenever they please.
“The more people that come in and the more books that go out, miraculously, more books appear,” said Ken Estey, an associate professor in the department of Political Science.
SABCAT was founded in 2013 and moved to James 3414 in 2017, where only a small number of books were available for students to read; now, many more are accessible.
“Typically, we would be able to give away about a thousand books a year without trying. But now with an intern such as Violet, we’re trying to get on Instagram, reaching out to you, and we’re looking at other modes of getting the word out,” Estey told The Vanguard.
SABCAT Books has given Brooklyn College students over 8,500 books in the last 12 years and aims to provide 10,000 books to students by the end of 2025, free of cost.
“I want students to hold books. Just the fact that holding a book, owning a book, gives students a sense of hope,” said Estey. “It could be heavy-duty philosophy, it could be romance, it could be a graphic novel, or fiction; it doesn’t matter as long as we think we can give it away. It’s really for everybody.”
SABCAT wants students to know that no matter how many books they donate to SABCAT or take from the books provided, everything is free for students to engage with.
“Books and books and books are here, take them,” Reimer told The Vanguard. “I’ve unpacked over 700 books in the past few days.”
Leaders of SABCAT want students to know that the lounge is an area for any and all students to be involved in.
“This is a space where people in the political science department, not in the political science department, can kind of like come together, hang out, chat, talk about politics,” said Reimer. “For the first time, we’re doing this book fair here during the political science cafe.”
The books in the lounge have received positive feedback from those who provide the space for students.
“Students report back to me like ‘this is my favorite room’, ‘this is a gem’, ‘thank you so much’. They even leave us little notes,” said Estey. “I find these little notes sometimes, you know, in which students express their appreciation for a chance just to be in a room, sit down, and just enjoy themselves and have a book because we’re in a book desert.”
Estey continued by emphasizing, “Having a book gives you an opportunity to focus, it gives you an opportunity to pay attention, and I think really many of us are longing for that, we want that connection.”
The poli sci lounge is open four days a week from 9 am to 5 pm, and students are free to use it for their own purposes. The lounge is not yet complete, but the process to complete the third space is underway.
“You can’t just show up and expect a village. You’ve got to create it,” said Reimer. “Half of getting there is just the student engagement. And the rest will kind of fill in itself. It’ll [the lounge will] get that homey feeling. It’ll get that hangout feeling.”
For students interested in SABCAT Books, visit their Instagram: @sabcat_books.