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Potential changes to library hours

With the Cullom-Davis Library closing at 4 a.m. Mondays through Thursdays, it’s easy for students to turn study days into sleepovers. However, with its weekend hours, the early bird is not catching the (book) worm.

Recently, there have been discussions about potentially reallocating some of the library’s hours of operation throughout the week.

The debate arose from Student Senate’s constituency reports, where campus issues are presented to student senators.

“There were concerns addressed that the university library did not open up their weekend hours early enough for a handful of students,” Vice President of Academic Affairs Michael Tomerlin said. “And that some would show up in the morning on a Saturday or Sunday and be disappointed, even surprised, that it wasn’t open before noon. This is not the case for every weekend throughout the year, but primarily the first half of each academic semester.”

The library is currently open until 4 a.m. on weekdays (with the exception of Friday), but doesn’t open until 11 a.m. on Saturdays, and on Sunday at 12 p.m. As of Monday until May 9th, however, the library will be open 24 hours for final exams.

“I personally don’t have an issue with the library hours,” freshman nursing major Emma Smith said. “I think they’re open a decent amount of time. I don’t personally think that students would use the library early on the weekends, but I think they’d get more use later on the weeknights.”

Other students said they see the benefits of allowing library use during weekend mornings.

“Opening early I don’t think will affect anyone negatively, just be a nice thing,” Katie Smigielski, a junior psychology major said. “I think as long as [the library] didn’t close before midnight on weekdays, that’d be fine.”

Once the associate to the provost and the executive director of the library gave their approval, an email was sent to all students with questions about their opinions of the library’s operating hours. The analyzed results of the survey will aid the library in future decisions.

If the majority agrees that the students would benefit if the library were to open an hour or two earlier over the weekends, then that is the type of change that is good for the university,” senior mechanical engineering major Tomerlin said. “It puts more students in a position to achieve success and complete their work in an area they may prefer to study in.”

To participate in the survey, students can log into their Bradley emails to find the link.

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