Students disgruntled about the quality of services and aesthetics at Baker-Berry Library may find respite in a new Student Assembly initiative.
With a BlitzMail message to students yesterday, the Assembly launched its Baker-Berry Student Feedback Campaign, an undertaking the Assembly hopes will address the frequent student complaints about the new library.
"I think they don't have a sense of what the main concerns are, and I think this is definitely going to be helpful in letting them know what students are upset about," Assembly President Jorge Miranda '01 said.
While the Assembly report is due to be completed within the next few weeks, the process began Tuesday night when Director of Library Administration John Crane and Director of Academic Computing Malcolm Brown spoke at the Assembly's weekly meeting on Tuesday.
Aware of widespread student discontent, Crane and Brown's message was conciliatory: although certain architectural designs are immovable, the library administration is looking for ways to improve on student services and make the new area more user-friendly.
"The building is under construction, so there is a high threshold for change. If something's not working, we've got to know that," Crane said. "But it doesn't mean some of the aesthetics can be changed.
"We see this as a great way to get student feedback on the building and what works and what doesn't," Crane added.
While last night's meeting was neither the beginning nor end point of the student feedback campaign, it did have a distinctly browbeating feel.
Assembly members complained about numerous aspects of the Baker-Berry project, including uncomfortable study space, a sterile atmosphere, the closing of the 1902 Room and an absence of wood throughout the new structure.
"A lot of Dartmouth is wood," Assembly member Jared Thorne '03 said. "I want to know why there isn't any wood in Berry. Did we just decide, 'enough wood'?"
One student criticized library personnel for not informing students that they could no longer print to Kiewit, a comment that prompted Brown to apologize.
Quick to ease student worries, Crane and Brown pledged to make several immediate improvements. Among other things, students will soon have access to more public computers, more Ethernet jacks for laptops and more available PCs.
