By: Oladosu Hiqmah Oyindamola
Quietude does not announce itself loudly. Sometimes, it exists in still corners and corridors, along shaded walkways, in spacious lecture theatres, and in the minds of students lost in thought. This is the atmosphere the prestigious Faculty of Social Sciences carries so effortlessly.
There is something almost unreal about the serenity it holds. The air feels unrushed and steady. Conversations do not clash; instead, they flow, measured, thoughtful, and deliberate. Students move with quiet purpose, unhurried beneath shaded paths, reading, discussing, and pausing to think. It is a place where the mind is allowed to rest before it is called back to perform.
In a university where constant movement is often demanded, my faculty stands as a quiet defiance. It does not compete with noise, it simply outgrows it. The Social Sciences is not the kind of place you rush into. You simply find yourself in it, and somehow, you remain, drawn by its calm rhythm. With its well-trimmed flowers, neatly kept grass, and cool green spaces, the environment feels alive and breathable. Scattered across the faculty are umbrella-shaded spots and covered walkways that protect students from the sun, creating pockets of calm across every direction you turn.
Have you ever been to the revered Leather Lounge and Pako Lounge? Have you experienced what it feels like to truly sit and rest there? I remember the first time I sat in the Leather Lounge, it took me barely ten minutes to drift into sleep. You know that feeling, that soft sinking comfort, like you’re resting on something almost fluffy, while a cool breeze brushes gently against your face. Yes, that is the exact feeling you get when you decide to rest at the Leather Lounge. The Pako Lounge mirrors it in its own way, open, shaded, and quietly welcoming offering its own quiet embrace beneath open shade.
And have I mentioned that my faculty also boasts two different cafeterias, where your taste buds are treated like royalty? Do I even need to cajole you? Just step in and see for yourself. When it comes to the Faculty of the Social Sciences, is it truly worth your time? Obviously more than worth it.
Perhaps that is why the neighbouring Faculty of Law cannot seem to do without my faculty. Rarely do they go a day without finding their way here. Moving through the same walkways, occupying the same lounges, and sharing in the same calm. For a faculty rooted in arguments and relentless reasoning, it is almost natural to seek a place that allows the mind to loosen its grip, even briefly.
And where better to retreat than a place where the air itself feels lighter, where the trees stand like silent guardians of peace and the shaded paths seem to slow your steps, as though urging you to breathe? Here, thoughts are not hurried; they are allowed to wander, to stretch, to settle. It is almost as if the faculty was not merely built for learning, but for recovering from it.
People come, again and again, not just out of habit, but out of quiet necessity. Because sometimes, even the busiest minds need a place that asks of no task, except to simply be. And here, in this quiet balance of movement and stillness, that permission is given without question.
Because serenity, after all, is not something to be claimed. It is something to be shared. And The Faculty of Social Sciences, quite evidently, lives up to the distinction its name carries.
