At 2:45 a.m. on a Thursday night, junior chemistry major Kunal Desai sits in front of his computer in an enclave of books on the first floor of Hunt Library. Keeping him company are an empty Mountain Dew bottle, an empty Starbucks Frappuccino bottle, and a bowl of half-eaten noodles—chopsticks resting precariously on the edge. He looks settled in, as if he has no plans to leave. And he won't. Working on a project for a biology lab about gel electrophoresis, he can "pull an all-nighter" because Hunt Library isn't going to close.
Before last school year, the lights would have gone out on students like Desai, a policy that never won popularity contests for Gloriana St. Clair, who has been the dean of university libraries for the past decade. Every school year, she says, she fielded requests from a few students to keep the library doors open all night. The official response was always, "No" It's hard to argue with the university's policy. Keeping the library open could have raised the cost of running it, made cleaning more difficult, and—perhaps most importantly—put students' health at risk with too little sleep. St. Clair recalls thinking students would be better served honing their time-management skills. But year after year, the all-nighter requests persisted, increasing in number and even being voiced to the Middle States Commission during the university's 2007–08 reaccreditation process.
So, in the 2008 fall term, nocturnal students like Desai got their way as part of a conditional pilot program that would keep the library open all night Sunday through Thursday. If the number of students coming to the library late at night met the numbers set forth by the Student Advisory Committee (at least 10 students in the library during hourly checks between 3 a.m. and 8 a.m) the program would become permanent. At first, turnout barely met the hourly requirements. Once the word got out, though, the combined headcount was between 200–300 during those hours. And St. Clair was pleased to discover that costs turned out to be minimal, and there were no reports of student zombies during daylight hours. The 24/5 library program is now what St. Clair refers to as one of the universitys "sacred cows."
That's wonderful news for Desai, who lives off campus. He sheepishly admits that the library eliminates quite a temptation. "I try to go back to my room and work, but it never happens. My desk is next to my bed."
—Elyssa Goodman (HS'10)
