The smell of coffee, the buzz of computers and the occasional student, head in hands on a desk, must mean it’s Finals Week, and the Knight Library, once again, is open 24/7 for University students, faculty and staff.
University senior Vijay Thangarasa sits alone at a four-person table on the fourth floor of the Knight Library, papers sprawled and books haphazardly opened. Although it’s not past regular Knight Library hours, he will probably be here past regular hours, today and everyday of Finals Week.
“I get a lot of things done here,” said Thangarasa, a Planning, Public Policy and Management major who spends up to 13 hours per day at the Knight Library during Finals Week, usually from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and then from 6 p.m. to around 2 a.m., he said.
The Knight Library has offered extended study hours since Finals Week in Spring 2003, as a safe place for students to study during those late night hours, although the program was almost cut this year when the Library refused to cover the cost of security fees.
In an emergency meeting last winter, the Student Senate reluctantly agreed to use student incidental fees to come up with the $4,000 to pay for the three security guards used during the extended hours of Dead and Finals weeks.
Thangarasa uses the Knight Library’s 24/7 Dead Week and Finals Week hours every term. He would go to the Law Library as a last resort, but there are too many people talking there, he said.
Katie Dougherty, a University sophomore majoring in business, said she’s seen the guards walking around and the trash cans being emptied, while studying past midnight during Finals Week. Throughout the term she comes to the Knight Library two to three times a week, although she’s there everyday, for about five hours a day, during Finals Week.
In past years, the extended Knight Library hours were used around 4,000 times each term, according to Knight Library records and as previously reported by the Emerald.
Kevin Taylor, a university graduate student working in the Knight Library, said he worked Tuesday night, the first night of extended hours, and there were about half as many students as there are in the middle of the day, he said.
“There are definitely people here,” Taylor said, adding that he spotted somebody carrying in a case of energy drinks the other night, so people are probably planning on staying late, he said.
Finals Week can spur a caffeine binge for some, which can cause stomachaches, low blood sugar, diarrhea and the shakes, said Ann Champagne, a registered nurse at Harborview Hospital in Seattle.
“You don’t want to shock your body during Finals Week,” she said, adding that cutting down on caffeine can cause headaches, so it’s better to keep coffee intake at your normal amount. She also said to never take caffeine pills, which she has seen put students into the emergency room.
“The important thing is to rest and not to do the all-nighters,” Champagne said, because sleeping helps process information into the long-term memory, which is where you want it.
Starting this year, the Knight Library relaxed its food and drink policy, which allows students to bring in food and avoid leaving the library for a midnight snack or coffee break, said University Librarian Eliz Breakstone.
“We just want people to be responsible,” Breakstone said about visitors cleaning up after themselves. “It’s important for people to feel that they can be in here.”
The Knight Library will be open around the clock until Friday, Dec. 8, of Finals Week. Printers, copiers and ITC computers are available, although all other services such as reference desks, the check out counter and course reserves will be closed.
A current University student, faculty or staff ID is required to be in the Knight Library between midnight and 8 a.m.
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