The library hours this year have changed from 24/7 to having new reduced hours. The new weekday hours are from 7:30 AM until 10:00 PM, with swipe access for students from 10:00 PM until 1:00 AM. This change was upsetting to students and has led to the Student Government Association (SGA) exploring what they could do to resolve the issue.
SGA Student Affairs Chair Connor Butterworth said that the change in library hours “instantly became a priority”.
The SGA understood that this was a big issue for a lot of students. The first step was to conduct a survey. Butterworth explained that this would help SGA to gather feedback from different students.
Butterworth said the survey included questions such as ‘What would they be using the library hours for? Would they appreciate a 24/7 room? What hours would they need the library?’
“Right now, not even at this university, but in general, there is always less money when we start out these situations,” SGA President Kate Bennett said. Bennett mentioned that budget cuts were not the sole reason for the change in hours. She said that the university looked at the swipe log and found the lower traffic hours and how many students were swiping in at what times.
Before the print deadline, the university was unavailable for comment outside the original announcement.
One thing Bennett expressed was most students have not completely utilized the 24/7 hours and are instead upset because they no longer have the option to.
One thing that was clearly expressed by SGA was to not expect the 24/7 library hours to return at any time soon.
“We know that especially with budget cuts in their conditions of things, how they’re changing right now, a 24/7 Library (is) not necessarily realistic. That’s not exactly what we’re going for.”
Instead of focusing on restoring the 24/7 hours, the SGA wants to try to make smaller changes which could look like doing something with the weekend hours.
Ultimately for the SGA, it is about working with the administration on an issue they feel is critical for students.
Bennett expressed it is about “working with administration in a way to make sure that our needs are met without them having to exhaust any more resources because they are, as a university, very much stressed about their resources just as much as we are. So we don’t want to necessarily fight this in any negative way.”
Butterworth said, “I think with the budget cuts it’s not even necessarily just a CNU conversation… But even then, I’m sure as a student you might notice other budget cuts around and truthfully it’s just a matter of where all universities are going. It’s hard, especially with higher education in general.”
But Butterworth stressed that “It’s a matter of what we do after the budget cuts that will really count.”
Bennett added, “When it comes to things like we want expanded library hours and things like that, we have to get that money from somewhere and we have to be able to fund the security that it would take to do those things. And so it’s a matter of give and take.”
Butterworth said the SGA has discussed what their future plan could include, which “may or may not consist of submitting some sort of different proposal to a provost about what sort of potential middle ground can be met with the hours, especially with what our data supports, but with any sort of change that’s happening on campus…it does come down to a lot of different reasons, whether it be financial or not.” Butterworth said.
“So it is truthfully about finding what can be done because we do believe there’s some sort of middle ground of sorts,” Butterworth said.
