Boston University’s Student Union initiative to expand library resources, including a provision to keep Mugar Memorial Library open 24 hours a day on weekdays, may come to fruition within the next year, multiple Union members said.
In addition to the expanded hours, the Academic Affairs Committee hopes to increase information technology support and access, create better areas for studying, allow food and beverages in the library and potentially make ‘team rooms’ that students would be able to reserve for group projects.
‘I would be all for a 24-hour Mugar,’ College of Arts and Sciences freshman Kathleen Hong said.
Hong said she has had difficulties with the library’s hours before.
‘I’m sure there are other students who have inevitably realized they’re missing books at the last minute and could use the extra hours to pick them up,’ Hong said.
The Union does not yet know how much the proposal will cost, Academic Affairs Committee Chair James Sappenfield said. However, from committee talks with Mugar officials, Sappenfield said the funds may come from adjustments to the Information Technology structure.
‘If we switch over to print stations in the computer labs we’d cut down on waste from paper and ink cartridges,’ Sappenfield, a CAS and School of Management junior, said. ‘And that would go towards some of the cost of keeping Mugar open additional hours.’
Though the Union has been considering changes to Mugar for ‘two or three years,’ Sappenfield said, it has only recently begun to see these changes as a possible reality after working with University Librarian Robert Hudson. The Union has not officially proposed the idea to Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore or asked him for an endorsement, Union officials and BU spokesman Colin Riley said.
Some in the administration and the student advocacy group, however, voiced reservations that the Union would see all the changes it desired.
Currently, the library is seeking more comfortable chairs for desks and considering allowing students to bring in coffee, Academic Affairs Committee Student Resources Coordinator Alanna Kahn said. Also, there is a new ‘team room.’ Kahn, a CAS freshman, said she was not sure if the Union could accomplish all of its goals.
‘In my opinion, it probably won’t end up [open] a full 24 hours, but we’re trying to expand it a much as possible,’ Kahn said.
Riley said it was necessary for the Union to bring this proposal before the Dean of Students before BU could give an opinion on it.
‘It’s not as simple as leaving the lights on and the doors open,’ he said. ‘This is not something we can act on without studying. There is cost to doing things like this and staffing issues, and if there are Union issues . . . we need to take a look at this.’
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