DE Government and Politics editor

The first floor of Morris Library will be open 24 hours to patrons as early as next fall, pending the installation of a much-needed restroom, administrators say.

At Tuesday’s Faculty Senate meeting, John Jackson, vice chancellor for Academic Affairs and provost, announced that administrators, Physical Plant employees and students agreed to the plan.

Advertisement

We have developed a plan for the library to allow the first floor, and only the first floor, to be open in the wee hours of the morning, he told the Senate. Most reasonable people like us may go to bed, but students are not always on the same clock as us, and so we are opening the library all night long for anyone and especially students.

Jackson said only the first floor would be open because the cost of staffing the whole library 24 hours each day, seven days a week, would be too great. He said, however, that prior to the plan’s implementation, the Physical Plant must install a bathroom in the first floor to comply with building codes.

We are working on it and hope to bring it online by fall semester next year or early in the fall, and that is our current hope and plan, he said But first we have to build a restroom on the first floor and make it ADA (American Disabilities Act) accessible.

The restroom will be located in the undergraduate library behind the browsing room, and Jim Tweedy, vice chancellor for Administration, estimates it will cost $95,000 from indirect cost money from grants and contracts.

We have a deferred maintenance list of $150 million in projects so it’s a matter of priorities, Tweedy said. And right now Chancellor [Donald] Beggs says this a high priority, so we’re going to do this.

Jackson said the 24-hour plan is the result of student and faculty requests. He said the open library will replace the current 24-hour study location in the Big Muddy room of the Student Center.

I think this is a good-news item because it solves a number of different problems all in one change, he said. We’ve had indications from faculty members for a number of years and student groups that they’d like the library to be more available in the hours past midnight and make the hours as extensive as possible.

Advertisement*

All-night study space accomplishes both goals and not inconsequentially gets a much-needed restroom facility on the first floor, which we’ve never had.

Last year, the Undergraduate Student Government requested that the Big Muddy room be open for 24 hours so that academic-minded students could have a place to study. The request was granted, but in November, the 24-hour room came under fire by administrators who claimed that it received little use in the pre-dawn hours, and that it was not cost-effective.

A proposal to close the room at 3 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and earlier on Friday and Saturday came before the Student Center board on Nov. 14. Jackie Smith, USG Chief of Staff, moved to table the motion until meeting with USG.

Smith presented the proposal to USG on Dec. 3, and USG responded by passing a unanimous resolution to support the 24-hour operation of the study room.

The consensus was overwhelming, she said. We felt it wasn’t a waste of money because this had never even been offered for students before, and patterns like that just aren’t going to change over one semester.

Although USG passed the resolution supporting the Big Muddy Room, she said the library is a superior option.

The lighting is a lot better there, and there are computers there with the Internet as well as encyclopedias and resource materials, she said.

Carolyn Snyder, dean of Library Affairs, said it is still too early to estimate the cost of staffing the first floor with library personnel and security between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7:45 a.m.

Snyder also is uncertain of what services will be available to students. She said the full plan, including costs, will be ready in the next few months.

We will definitely provide for checking out books, and using computers, she said. But beyond that we’re not real sure, we just don’t have a full plan yet.