Donovan Collins, a fourth-year behavioral neuroscience major, has been a drummer since he was 10. Once he got to Northeastern, he joined the pep band not only to continue working on his craft, but also for the added benefit that ensemble drummers get: access to the drum set practice room in Ryder Hall. 

But Collins rarely gets to practice.

Ryder 364, controlled by the Music Department, is the only official “practice” drum room on campus available to ensemble drummers, music majors and minors, and drum lesson students. However, students say the room is typically booked throughout the week, and The News confirmed on Northeastern’s space reservation site Robin that it is usually fully booked on weekends and weekdays after 5 p.m. 

The limited accessibility of this space has been an obstacle for those who rely on campus resources to practice their craft. 

“If I’m in a Northeastern ensemble, and I can only get a total of three hours of practice a week, I’m not going to put out a good product for the ensemble,” Collins said.

Besides the two drum sets in Ryder 364, Northeastern has only three recording studios with drum sets — one in Shillman Hall, one in Curry Student Center and one in Snell Library. The Shillman recording studio only allows access to music majors, the Curry studio is exclusive to members of the Green Line Records club and the Snell space is not available for practice, only recording. 

Other performing art groups, namely dance troupes, face similar struggles due to limited practice space. Elsie Coleman, a second-year cell and molecular biology major, said she has encountered these issues as the media specialist for the NU Dragon and Lion Dancing Troupe. The club is an offshoot of the Chinese Student Association.

The troupe books out the lobby in Behrakis Health Sciences Center for lion dancing and the racquetball court in Cabot Center for dragon dancing — a space Coleman said “looks like a jail cell but is just big enough for us to fit.”

Keith Huang, a second-year health science major and member of the NU Dragon and Lion Dancing Troupe, said that booking these non-traditional spaces has its own problems. 

“We get kicked out all the time from our own practice spaces,” he said, adding that their practice space in Behrakis often gets double booked through Google Calendar.

Sanjana Mishra, a third-year journalism and criminal justice combined major, dances with NU Rangila, a Bollywood fusion dance team that has also had to navigate Northeastern’s practice room system. The group, with roughly 30 members and no specific practice location, rehearses in both Knowles Center and the Raytheon Amphitheater, Mishra said. 

In Knowles Center specifically, the group finds itself competing for space. 

“A lot of the time there’s a class that goes until a little bit late, so sometimes we’ll be waiting for maybe, like, 30 minutes,” Mishra said. “It just takes away a lot of valuable time that we could be using to practice. And then when we do get in there, we have to move all the desks and chairs out, and then at the end of practice move them back in.”

A Northeastern spokesperson acknowledged the problem and said the university is looking for solutions. 

“Northeastern has more than 500 student organizations, including those focused on music and dance. Although there are multiple dedicated rehearsal and recording studios on the Boston campus, there is greater demand than there are available rooms,” Director of Global Media Relations Dan Sarro said in an email statement to The News Nov. 6. “Student groups have been very creative in utilizing additional spaces on campus for rehearsals while the university is exploring solutions.”

Sam Iannone, a second-year business administration major and pep bandmate of Collins, believes that the solution is just as simple as the problem. 

“The passion is there, people want to play, people want to share their music, but the first thing is space,” Iannone said. “Northeastern needs to add some rooms that are specifically just drum practice rooms.” 

Multiple other practice rooms in Ryder do not get nearly the same foot traffic as Ryder 364 but do not have drum sets, Collins said. 

Although Collins wishes that there was enough space for students who are not part of an ensemble to develop their hobby on campus, he thinks that the current allocation of resources is appropriate: “There are already so many people that want to use a drum room and even then, there still isn’t enough room for all of us who are in a Northeastern ensemble.”

Rachel Lightman, a second-year music and psychology combined major, plays the electric bass and violin rather than the drums but uses both Ryder 364 and the Shillman recording studio to practice in a band setting. She recalls the availability of these rooms reaching an unprecedented low when N.U.in students arrived at the Boston campus in spring 2024.

Lightman and her bandmates could no longer rely on Northeastern’s resources to maintain their creative pursuits. 

“We had a very hard time getting spots to practice, and we needed to practice because we had gigs booked, so we were kind of at an impasse,” she said.

During the second semester of her first year — spring 2024 — Lightman created handwritten sheets petitioning for more practice spaces with drum sets and posted them around campus hoping that the school would respond to the issue. 

Lightman says she thinks the university is aware of the problem, especially after her campaign. 

“I very highly doubt that Northeastern doesn’t know this is an issue,” she said. 

Iannone also believes that the university has the student body’s best interests at heart and hopes that the school will take action. He and Collins agree that the solution lies in funding additional spaces for dance and music groups.

Northeastern could buy “a fantastic drum set for under $2,000,” Iannone said.

“I think it’s just, ‘Hey, let’s bring this to their attention, help draft up a proposal,’” Iannone said. “Figure out where the problems are and troubleshoot from there.” 

“Northeastern has money,” he added. “And this is one of those instances where throwing money at the problem will pretty much solve the problem.”