By Autumn Lowry
As Wesleyan just held our “All-Star Record Breaking” themed homecoming, it is quite obvious that our campus has grown. With our new enrollment being at 988, a very important issue has been brought to the attention of the Student Government Association (SGA). This issue was proposed to the SGA by Philip Ross and Matt Dannel who were concerned with the campus’ library hours. These students petitioned to extend the weekly hours until 12 a.m. midnight instead of the current closing hour at 9pm. Their reasoning for this petition is to utilize the resources, such as the library, that we pay for more effectively. In other words, we have an amazing library that provides so many resources for students…so why aren’t we making more use of it? Also, these students propose having Merner-Pfeiffer open until midnight on weeknights would make us more competitive to other schools of similar size, such as Bryan College, Covenant College, King College, and Lee College, all of which have library hours that extend to 12am. These students have a wonderful proposal and strong ideas for their petition. They have received almost two-hundred student signatures which roughly represents a fifth of the student body.
This idea seems great on the surface, and you won’t hear many arguments against it. However, the biggest obstacle that the library has to cross before these extended hours can happen is receiving staff to accommodate these changes. These extended hours would require another staff member or one of the current staff to extend their hours, and that poses a problem with budgeting. Also, student workers would be needed at night to help as well, but with work study funding being cut, there aren’t the funds to pay these students. The librarians love for students to utilize Merner-Pfeiffer; after all, that is why the library and staff are there. However, they cannot accommodate this request without extra staff. I talked to head librarian Sandra Clariday, who stated that she would keep the library open as long as she had the personnel to cover the extended hours. However, Mrs. Clariday or any of the other library staff have not seen the proposal nor been asked about it. They only heard of this through students conversing about it.
It is obvious that extended hours for the library would be a great asset to campus; it would benefit students, the campus’ ability to compete with other colleges, and the library would be used more. However, in order for this to happen, the staff of the library need to be informed as well as worked with on hours and proposed staffing solutions. If this could happen, I believe that the library could extend its hours and all parties involved would be content.
