A petition circulating on campus to extend library hours is unlikely to effect a change, said the library’s dean this week.

The Student Senate passed a resolution last week supporting a petition started by the College Democrats to extend the hours of the Gregg Triad lab and Booth Library.

Former senator Ben Marcy sponsored the resolution.

“The resolution was to open lines of communication,” said Marcy. “Just to let the administration know it’s a concern of the students.”

Former Senator Jillian Ruddy co-sponsored the bill. Ruddy said that students had brought concerns to student government about library hours.

“The library is only open until five on Friday,” said Ruddy. “We want to let students know we’re working on the things they find important.”

Ruddy said that the student government was not to the point of discussing funding for the project or researching how to find more people to work the extra hours at the Triad or the Booth library.

However, Allan Lanham, dean of the library, says that student government has proposed extending library hours before.

“I have encouraged them to find something that is feasible in the library to work for,” said Lanham. “I told them to help us with the speakers or exhibitions.”

Lanham said that the previous proposals failed because there is no need to extend library hours.

“We track usage. Friday and Saturday are the least trafficked days already,” said Lanham. “So why would we extend hours on those days?”

Lanham said the library is open 100 hours a week and even when the library is closed, students have access to library materials.

“We provide many electronic resources for students to use anywhere they are,” said Lanham.

Lanham said that in order to extend library hours he would have to hire more staff and that was not financially possible.

The student government also supports extending Gregg lab hours. The Gregg Triad lab stopped being open overnight two years ago.

Michael Hoadley, assistant vice president for academic affairs for technology, said that Gregg lab usage has been tracked in the past.

“From 2 a.m. to 7 a.m., three or four people used it a night,” said Hoadley. “We were very careful about documenting use.”

Hoadley said the decision to cut Gregg lab hours was about responsibility.

“It’s all about fiscal responsibility and the proper use of ATAC funds,” said Hoadley. “We just couldn’t see why it should be open when no one was using it.”

“If there was really a need for it we would be happy to entertain the idea,” said Hoadley.

Stephanie Feldhake, a biological sciences major, said she supported the idea of the computer lab being open 24 hours.

“I thought Gregg being open 24 hours was convenient. If I needed to get something done, I could get up at 6 in the morning and go there,” said Feldhake.

“I have more time on Fridays to study,” said Gulnar Mammadova, a Business administration graduate student. “I get out of work at 4:30 p.m. and I can never go and make it (to the library) before it closes.”

Mammadova said she would like the library to be open until 7 p.m. on Fridays, but she doesn’t want her student fees to increase to fund it.

Jong Sung, freshman management major, leaves Booth Library at 12:45 a.m. on Wednesday after closing time to go to the Martin Luther King Jr. Union where he could study more. (Jay Grabiec/The Daily Eastern News)

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