In a time when “left” and “right” conjure images of politics, the terms aren’t always so heavy handed.

“Being a ‘lefty’ in a ‘righty’ world can be very frustrating,” sophomore psychology major Stephanie Walker said. “One of the biggest frustrations is the fact I have a very hard time finding a ‘lefty’ desk, therefore, I have a hard time writing.”

Annoyed students are not the only ones noticing the shortage of left-handed desks.

“It seems there are never enough [left-handed] desks,” said Bob Albanese, associate vice president of Finance and Facilities. “I have worked here for 30 years and the shortage of left-handed desks has not been a problem before.”

Some of NIU’s classrooms are properly equipped to handle the growing number of left-handed students.

“Barsema Hall has an entire row of just left-handed desks,” said Laura Clark, a junior business management major. “It is the first desk in every single row.”

Barsema has the only large lecture hall fully equipped to accommodate multiple left-handed students. There are no plans in the future to make other large lecture classrooms similar to those in Barsema because of a lack of funds.

“It would take years to rehabilitate all of the large lecture classes,” Albanese said. “We simply do not have the funding from the government.”

However, there have been some changes in the classrooms in order to adapt to students’ needs.

Many long tables have been placed in the smart classrooms. The tables provide adequate room for both lefties and righties.

Albanese offers another solution for those students who need a different hands-on approach.

“If students needed a left-handed desk, he or she would just move a [lefty] desk from one classroom to another,” Albanese said.