By Kimberly Prather, Student Reporter

The English Department celebrated its finished student commons, the Inkwell, with the English tradition high tea and a few words of dedication on Friday.

Now, students can enjoy a relaxing environment with the opening of the Inkwell in Chambers Hall. Also on Fridays, The Inkwell invites English majors to enjoy each other’s company and conversation in the afternoon, accompanied by a cup of tea.

“The Inkwell is a place for English majors to hang out, talk about classes and build community,” said Bill Rankin, professor of English.

The space was obtained a year ago and is now completely finished with computers, couches and decorations.

“The room had been in process, nearly finished for a while, but we finally finished putting up our sign and decorations,” Rankin said.

Among the decorations is a Chinese proverb on the wall.

“With the proverb ‘Words are but air; the pen leaves a mark,’ the idea is talk is cheap, and we want our students to stand by their principles and commit by putting it in writing,” Rankin said.

At the high tea and grand opening on Friday, English majors, faculty, administrators and the Women for Abilene Christian University attended. WACU has made significant donations to the Inkwell, and at the grand opening, the WACU representatives were introduced.

“Our hope is that faculty, along with English majors, will come together on an informal basis and talk about ideas,” Rankin said.

The department says The Inkwell does not have an agenda. Instead, the hope is to build a culture of informal academic discussion and talk about current events. The Inkwell represents student community, and many students have already settled in.

“We have been using this room since the beginning of the semester,” said Heather Brown, English graduate student from Victoria. “We are in here hanging out; it’s comfortable and it feels like ours.”

The Inkwell serves tea every Friday afternoon, and

English majors and non-majors alike are welcome to stop by for a cup.