I read it as sarcasm, in the sense that the organizers seem to be putting a lot of effort into pretending they're not merely appropriating college age "study in

I read it as sarcasm, in the sense that the organizers seem to be putting a lot of effort into pretending they're not merely appropriating college age "study in commons" lifestyle. So you take your psych 101 textbook to the commons and read mostly quietly for a half hour and then party all night with whoever else shows up to "study" and the only difference is you're older and not paying $50K/yr for the privilege to do so.