In Stunt, Brown U. Student Lives for a Week in Library

Jennifer Pinkowski -- Library Journal, 1/8/2008

• Stunt to win housing contest
• Library said no to coffee-cup wall
• Who notices, in a 24-hour library? 

In December, a Brown University student spent a week “imprisoned” in a makeshift “apartment” he created in the Sciences Library's 24-hour study center as a stunt to win an annual talent contest that scores the winner first choice of campus housing. (The 2007 winner was The Skintones, a nude a cappella group.) As related on the IvyGate blog, sophomore Grant Gilles brought clothes, a cot, and other home essentials into the study area, and then had it filmed. 

Library spokesperson Brent Lang told LJ that staff ordered Gilles to remove a wall of coffee cups he had constructed but otherwise were largely indifferent to him. Gilles blended in with the many students pulling long hours at the study center during finals. "It's not like he was camping out after hours," said Lang. "It's not unusual around finals time to see students there at all hours and even taking naps. He wasn't breaking the rules." 

Gilles seems to have done little actual studying in the library, according to the update he sent to IvyGate the day before his stint ended, and doesn't seem too careful about punctuation. He spent a good chunk of time watching “the entire series of weeds (seasons 1-3) bootleg on china's youtube equivalent tudou.com.” While most IvyGate commenters focused whether Gilles was hot or a "loser," one, who said he was a librarian, called Gilles “an annoying attention whore.”