That could work. If a lot of people were talking, it might take a while to scroll back to instructors. And if something happened in chat, you wouldn't be able to see if they're talking until it scrolled all the way through. That would give more time for someone higher on the hierarchy to see, but then you'd have to wait for another round of scrolling through to check again. I guess. I dunno. xD 

Yep. Like that. XD

That's fair. However, if it were two people who were on the same level, like a librarian and a chronicle checker, I think, they wouldn't be able to see each other typing. So the user might still end up feeling overwhelmed. Maybe it could be like colors at the bottom that light up to signal what people are writing. So if a librarian didn't see anybody typing, then she could start. Then, if a higher-up did check chat, they would see that the situation is being dealt with and know that they wouldn't have to step in. But yeah, all users who are typing appearing might be a bit too chaotic and laggy.