Editorial: Hours need to be added

Where do you like to study? In your house or your dorm? Where do you go when it gets noisy or you are bogged down with distractions? You might go to the library. But the Carlson Library hours changed this year and this has eliminated the most prominent place students can go to study, do homework or just get away from their homes.

It is to our understanding that Student Government — at least, the senators who have prominently shown interest in this issue — are calling for action. Get students in the library after hours, they say, and that will send a message to the library administration that students need the library open 24 hours a day.

We shouldn’t have to make a call to action to demonstrate the importance of having a library that’s always available. What does it say about UT, an institute of learning, when it shuts down the building that represents self-initiative, academic success and ease of access to information.

The library is an environment that discourages distraction: it is easy to focus on work in a library because that is our workspace. What are the repercussions of closing the students’ workspace during peak hours of work for campus residents? Closing the library is akin to closing an office — the students’ office.

Dorms are not conducive to productivity. When roommates are not watching movies, playing games or hanging out with friends, they’re trying to sleep. If you can manage to find space outside of the room itself, computers are in limited supply and common rooms are typically used for relaxation, not quiet study. Some of us have lived (and still do) on campus before. We used the library because it was a place to get away from our living environment, to create that necessary separation of living space and workspace.

Not only that, but sometimes dorm lab computers and printers fail and it takes a long time for them to be fixed. The library — especially after hours — has a large number of computers for overnighters to use.

In addition, students who work late nights and then want to go and study no longer have access to a place that has a connection to the Internet and a quiet place to study and work.

Successful universities, like OSU and Miami (Ohio), have libraries open 24/7. Since UT touts itself as an outstanding center of higher education, it should strive to operate like those universities.

Sure, some colleges at UT have their own labs, but if the library is open 24/7, then those labs don’t have to be. The administration could move funding from those labs to keeping the library open.

The library is the security net for students to get away, to print something, to have a quiet place, to use its resources. It is central in the life of a student. What about students who weren’t accepted to schools that give 24/7 access to academic resources? These resources are meant to be allocated for the students who do not have normal schedules and consistent access to the technology necessary to be successful students. It isn’t fair to them if they can’t access those same resources here. Equal opportunity for all students needs to be a priority at UT.

Funding is often a choice between different things. There isn’t always enough money to do everything at the same time. However, we would like to know what was considered a priority over the library.

Take the second floor, for example. It’s been under construction for a couple of years — in fact, all work on it has stopped. At some point in the last couple of years, the library lost access to the money that would allow it to finish that project.

A complete, modern 24-hour library would be very attractive to students. Having cutting-edge technology and contemporary workspaces would make the library a place students want to be. Such an ideal library would also encourage potential students to become new students.

We want to know what UT’s administration considers more important than the library. We would like someone involved with the planning of the library to tell the community why nothing was sacrificed for one of UT’s most important institutions.