Erin Toews studies Spanish in the Knight Library on Tuesday afternoon.
The Knight Library may no longer offer students a place to study around the clock during Finals Week next year unless student leaders authorize incidental fees to cover half the cost for the popular service, a move senators appeared hesitant to make during Wednesday’s Student
Senate meeting.
The library began offering 24/7 service during Dead Week and
Finals Week in spring 2003 to provide students a safe place to cram for exams throughout the night. Yet keeping the building open — which costs about $4,000 a term for security — will no longer be affordable after this year for the cash-strapped library, University Librarian Deb
Carver said.
Library records show that the extended library hours are used about 4,000 times per term,
Carver said.
“There’s a big demand,” she said. “It’s ended up being a much more popular service than I would have expected.”
Carver said the library won’t fund the service because extended hours fall outside of its core mission, adding that library staff never intended to permanently fund the service from library coffers.
“It was kind of an experiment,” she said. “We didn’t expect to fund this ourselves long term.”
She added that students are the main, if not only, benefactors of
the service.
While student leaders have acknowledged the popularity of the service, several have raised concerns about using student money to fund the extra hours.
ASUO Vice President Mena Ravassipour said the ASUO Executive will support action by the Senate as a last resort for funding the extended hours.
“Our incidental fee promotes the physical and cultural development of our University; academia is what our tuition is supposed to pay for,” she told the Emerald in a written statement. “If we set a precedent of spending incidental fee dollars on essential academia, we risk a slippery slope for future allocations.”
Carver said she will look for money within the budget to maintain the service for this year.
“I don’t think it’s wise to change course midstream,” she said.
However, Carver said the library, which has a budget of about $14 million, could pay for future extended hours only at the expense of
other services.
“With a budget of approximately $14 million, it’s not a question of if there’s money there,” she said. “We could do that. It means something else doesn’t get paid for.”
She added that the library has struggled financially for several years after carrying a deficit prior to 2000. Cuts have done “serious damage” to the library’s collection of academic journals, and the library has lost nine staff positions since 2000, she said.
Carver said the library’s money, which comes from the University in one lump sum, is completely allocated each year for other essential services.
Some senators questioned whether Carver had sought alternative sources for funding besides the Senate. Carver said she has not looked elsewhere for funding, saying a joint venture between the library and students is the best way to fund the service.
Senator Stephanie Stoll was among the senators who said it was the University’s responsibility to pay for the service, adding that some other universities have
libraries open 24/7.
“My current feeling on this is that it’s not students’ obligation to pay for extra hours,” she said.
Senator Austin Shaw-Phillips said the library is the best place for students to study at the end of the term. But he said he would be embarrassed to tell someone at another university that he pays for extra hours with student money.
“That’s friggin’ ridiculous,” he said. “I don’t think it’s anappropriate use of incidental fee money.”
Ravassipour urged the senators to wait to make a decision until they can conduct research on other
libraries’ programs.
“Two weeks is still ample time to see what other universities are doing,” she said.
Carver said the service provides a good cost-to-benefit ratio because each use costs about $1. Although the University could provide students a less expensive place to study safely, holding study hours in the library is more valuable for students because they have access to library resources, she said.
Senators will hold a public forum on Tuesday, Jan. 25 from 5 to 6 p.m. to solicit input on whether they should fund extra hours. A location for the meeting has not yet been set.