hatcher isolation

A common practice at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The process of studying in complete social isolation, with only your books and some (disallowed) food and drink, for hours on end, for midterms or other GPA-necessary assignments. (Background: The Hatcher Graduate Library is actually an interconnected set of two buildings, Hatcher North and Hatcher South. It is possible to get lost in the stacks even with the guidelines on the floor, as many freshmen do. There are numerous small study rooms in the corridors, called study carrels, and are generally occupied (even when in the most obscure of areas) by undergraduate upperclassmen that have explored (and survived) the Hatcher stacks.)