By snoadmin
After a push from students and Associated Students Inc. parties, the University Library is now opening its doors at 6:45 a.m. instead of 7:45 a.m.
The idea to roll back the University Library’s opening time by an hour was spearheaded by ASI Secretary of Internal Affairs Allison Bretall and later aided by ASI Senator-at-Large Brandon White. The change will give students with early morning classes enough time to squeeze in last-minute studying and print homework or notes for their courses, White said.
The potential benefit of an earlier opening time for students with 8 a.m. classes was the main reason extended hours were pursued, according to White. The popularity of the library’s extended finals week hours served as additional inspiration.
“We wanted to get the library open so students could do whatever they need to do for morning class,” White said, noting that there are hundreds of 8 a.m. classes every week spaced throughout campus.
A sharp decrease of $700,000 in funding this last fiscal year left the University Library with less resources for library materials, according to the CSULB website. To make up the difference, subscriptions to journals with low or no usage were dropped, and a change in storage procedures for remaining journals and sources was enacted.
Initially, White said a tightened University Library budget was a concern, and he wasn’t sure if the idea was financially feasible. However, White said he was told that rearranging shifts would be the main operational obstacle. Administration was ready and willing to work with ASI though, and University Library officials worked out the new hours.
“We are very excited to be extending the library’s building hours by one hour in the morning,” Associate Dean of the University Library Tracy Mayfield said.
The new hours were a “student-led operational change,” and that prior to requests from ASI, students working on a class project had contacted her inquiring about the same thing, Mayfield said.
“We were first contacted by Nick Jensen, a student in an English technical writing course whose group project was to investigate opening the Library at 7:30 a.m.,” she said.
Jensen was the first to shed light on the challenges of students with 8:00 a.m. classes faced, Mayfield said. Shortly after Jensen’s project, Bretall and White asked for an even earlier opening time.
“After investigating our options, we found that opening at 6:45 a.m., Monday through Friday, during the regular session would be something we were able to accomplish,” Mayfield said.
White said that the new University Library hours are part of a larger plan to keep the library open to students both earlier in the morning and later at night.
“I have a lot of friends who are in there studying every night until 11 p.m., and they don’t leave until they’re asked to,” he said. “It’d be great if we could keep it open until midnight for students like them.”
White admitted that extending hours into the night would be considerably harder to accomplish, and that for now he’s happy with what’s been done.
“Allison [Bretall] wanted to open it up in the morning, and that’s what we accomplished,” he said.
