Thanks to an onslaught of student protest, the university will not cancel late-night study at McKeldin Library for the fall, university administrators said.
The decision came after library officials told late-night study’s student employees in June that they should find other jobs in case the university cut the library’s 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. hours, and after Facebook groups mobilized students into opposing the decision. A public forum on late-night study held last month drew more than 30 students, during which “a number of the students there rather eloquently articulated the importance and the value that [late-night study] represented for their academic success,” Interim Dean of Libraries Desider Vikor said.
As a result, the final decision on the service, which was made by Vikor and Provost Nariman Farvardin, was based largely on the negative student reaction, Vikor said.
“I heard the students very loud and clear, and certainly came away after that evening with an enhanced appreciation of where they were with respect to late night,” Vikor added. “For me, that was the prime and the determining factor.”
However, Vikor would not comment on where the university will now look to trim costs in order to pay for more expensive journal subscriptions, the reason the university was considering getting rid of late-night study.
“I will work that out with the provost, and I think as far as students and other users of the library goes, we’ll deal with that in due time,” Vikor said.
For his part, Farvardin acknowledged the rising cost of journal subscriptions and agreed the library’s budget will continue to be analyzed.
“The cost of subscriptions and acquisitions and books goes up much faster than the budget of the library can ever go up; they can’t buy as many books or subscribe to as many journals as they would like,” he said. “That’s something that has prompted this effort, to look at how much money the library is spending.”
To keep students involved with the decision-making process regarding the library, a student advisory committee to libraries will be created, Vikor said. Student Government Association President Jonathan Sachs, who will be involved with the committee, added “This is going to be an important step in moving forward with library policy.”
Senior English and history major Anne Price said she was pleased with the decision to keep late-night study. Price, who has worked at late-night study in previous semesters, is also a member of the group Students for a Democratic Society, which helped organize the forum last month.
“I only hope that the administration has learned a lesson from this incident, and in the future, they will do more to understand undergraduate needs at the university when making large and important decisions about things that effect undergraduate students,” Price said.
Yet while late-night study will continue, the government documents and periodical desks will no longer exist, Vikor said. Both services will be merged with other desks on the front floor, and though there are no final dates yet, government documents will probably phase out in the fall and periodicals in January, Vikor said. The decision to cut those desks had nothing to do with late-night study, he added.
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