No one has the guts to turn to the person sitting next to them in a big lecture hall and tell them to back off. Sadly, most students will have to take at least one big lecture class at some point in their college careers and experience this discomfort.

We go to a Big Ten school with nearly 33,000 undergraduate students. This is the ultimate college experience; however, living the epitome of a college lifestyle has its downfalls, and that entails at least a few gigantic lecture halls.

Luckily enough, I avoided large lectures in my first semester, sticking primarily to smaller art and literature classes.

But when I walked into the Lincoln Hall Theater for microeconomics this semester, I was in complete shock at the immense number of people sitting around me. There was no avoiding this classic college dilemma.

I have gone to this class, and a few other large lectures, only a few times now, but have quickly come to loathe the seating arrangement. And my fellow classmates only seem to make things worse.

As a whole, we should be registering for, “How to Sit in a Lecture Hall and Not Annoy Leah 101.” Once again, my fellow readers, I am here to break down proper behavior for you.

There is nothing worse than maneuvering through a bunch of people to find a seat in the middle of a row. There is no reason earlier people arriving to lecture cannot choose a seat in the middle rows, so that other people may trickle in behind them. This way we can avoid the awkward grinding and bumping thing we do as we try to slyly pass people to get a seat.

Matt Long, freshman in DGS, gets especially frustrated when people don’t follow this seating etiquette and he has to move around others.

“It’s really awkward because everyone gets mad at me and they’re all super small and I’m a big football player. I weigh 300 pounds exactly. I have to make all seven people, or whatever, stand up, and I feel like they get mad at me,” Long said. “Also, I drink a lot of water to stay hydrated and have to get up to go to the bathroom a lot. I feel that if people would just scoot down into the middle instead of being selfish, it’d be more convenient to give up those seats to someone like me who needs to sit on the edge.”

I know we all want that aisle seat but this is for the greater good: If you get to class first, it is just common courtesy to move to the middle of the aisles.

Another commonly ignored courtesy rule would be to not spill over into another person’s space. And I don’t just mean your limbs; please keep your jackets, backpacks and other personal belongings to yourselves, within the confines of your desk and seat area.

We are close enough as it is, and no offense, but I don’t want your backpack touching my leg. If you are even going to take your coat off at all, the proper etiquette is to sit on it. Max Marietti, freshman in DGS, has similar feelings about staying in your own area.

“Econ 102. Foellinger Hall,” Marietti says to set the scene. “I’m a naturally big guy, so I sat on the very end so I get extra room. There are five open seats next to me, right, and a little guy came and sat directly next to me. He flipped up a laptop and typed away with his elbows in my way. I’m not a mean person so I didn’t say anything, but it was very uncomfortable and I couldn’t concentrate.”

You likely wouldn’t want other people to distract you in class, so don’t be that person who makes it hard for others to hear or pay attention to the professor because you’re invading their personal space. And if it wasn’t already obvious, turn your phones off, and better yet, turn off your beeping laptop.

If you’re the first person to make a step in the right direction, we might all start to show each other more respect in the lecture halls, and therefore live less stressful 50 minute periods learning about “supply and demand” or whatever it is my professor is talking about these days.

Leah is a freshman in Media.

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