Study lounge report released

Student Union officials are asking administrators to consider keeping the West Campus dining hall open 24 hours as a late-night study lounge and keep the George Sherman Union open later, according to a proposal released to administrators this week.

Provost Dennis Berkey said he hopes to respond to the Union proposals by within the next few weeks, though Union officials said they are hoping for a response by the end of the week.

Union vice president of Academic Affairs David Bresler, who headed the Union’s 24-hour study lounge committee, said the West Campus dining hall is one of the first targets the Union proposes be used to test the idea of a 24-hour study lounge.

‘It is an aesthetically pleasing environment and it is already hooked up to the wireless internet,’ he said. ‘The dining hall has security so we would like to keep it open as a study lounge from 12 to 7 a.m.’

Union officials have been working to make the George Sherman Union a central hub for students as well, Bresler said. The second part of the proposal pushes to keep the GSU open until 2 a.m. and to renovate the building’s current study lounge to add power and Ethernet pugs, he said.

Bresler said members of the Student Union hope a better-equipped lounge may also increase traffic near their basement office in the GSU.

The proposal also recommends administrators close some existing late-night studying locations, including the General Classroom Building. Closures would offset later hours in the GSU.

The GCB is currently open until 2 a.m. and has been a target for security issues, Bresler said.

The last part of the proposal deals with extending library hours until 2 a.m. for the week before finals, one part of the proposal Bresler said he hopes administrators will take seriously as soon as possible.

‘We want to see this done this semester,’ Bresler said. ‘We think we can make it happen right now.’

The Union’s proposal also includes results of student surveys conducted on the issue in February. According to their surveys, 79 percent of students study after midnight on occasion and 81 percent of students study at least once a week after 1 a.m. Fifty-eight percent of students reported having difficulty finding group study locations, according to the survey.

Bresler said the Union’s findings point to a definite campus need.

‘Numbers show that people want the lounges on campus and that these resources need to be brought to BU,’ said Bresler.

Members of the Union’s 24-hour study lounge proposal committee used a different plan of attack in dealing with administrators to make the proposal, Bresler said. Instead of waiting for the long process of forming an administrative committee to discuss the idea, as last year’s Union guest policy committee did, they invited administrators to their office to sit and discuss their ideas and come up with reasonable proposals.

‘Now that we have addressed our concerns, there should be no need for a committee made up of administration,’ he said. ‘The process will hopefully be quicker.’

Union officials submitted the completed proposal to administrators and are hoping for an answer by the end of the week, Bresler said.

‘Hopefully administration doesn’t want a committee. The results are in Provost Berkey’s hands but we will fight for out recommendation because we feel that we are right,’ Bresler said.

Provost Dennis Berkey, one of the administrators working with the 24-hour study lounge proposal committee, said he received the proposal and is in the process of reviewing it with other administrators. He said he hopes to respond in the next few weeks.

Student Union president Ethan Clay said administrators seem to be impressed with what he called a ‘well-informed’ proposal.

‘I feel that the surveys, the facts, have proven to be the strongest part of the information supporting a 24-hour study lounge,’ Clay said.