Tuesday evening marked the first Student Assembly meeting following the election of former Vice President Noah Riner '06 as next year's Assembly President. With campaigning out of the way for another year, the Assembly's resolution to extend Baker/Berry library hours until 2 a.m. on weeknights passed uncontested.
The library hours resolution, sponsored by Russell Lane '06 and Lucas Nikkel '05, received overwhelming support from the 36 Assembly members in attendance. Students who answered the Assembly's poll about library usage also expressed a desire for longer hours.
"It's an issue we're trying to raise on the priority list of administrators," Lane said.
Results from the poll that the Assembly conducted this winter showed that 82 percent of students who responded have "been discouraged from using the library because of its hours of operation." The poll also found that 84 percent of respondents have studied in the library until midnight at least once a week.
As part of the resolution, Assembly is offering up to $850 to keep the library open until 2 a.m. during the week before finals this spring.
The Assembly has also offered to staff the library during that week if library staff cannot be found to work the extra two hours. When this portion of the resolution was read aloud, a male member of the Assembly audibly muttered, "Oh God."
"Quite often, when SA puts our money where our mouth is in terms of initiatives, the administration is more responsive," said Assembly Treasurer Steve Koutsavlis '05, who also spoke in favor of the resolution.
According to information compiled by the Assembly, keeping Baker/Berry library open for an extra 10 hours a week would cost about $40,000, and this fiscal constraint is the primary reason that library hours have not changed yet.
"It's really just a fiscal thing," Koutsavlis said. "The College has plenty of money."
The resolution did not include a provision for extended weekend hours. Baker/Berry currently closes at 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday evenings, but according to the resolution's sponsors, students have not expressed sufficient interest in longer hours on those nights.
"Basically, there's not too much demand for that," Koutsavlis said. "It's Saturday. Go get wasted."
Tuesday night's attendance was more than sufficient for the quorum necessary to conduct a meeting, though Assembly President Julia Hildreth noted the low attendance at the beginning of the meeting.
"For those of your friends who are just lazy and not coming, tell them that we miss them," she said.
Hildreth also noted that, while committee executives generally attend their committee meetings, other members of the committees have had sparse attendance records.
"Everyone's all depressed because like two people showed up to their committee meeting," she said.
Of this year's five presidential candidates, only Paul Heintz '06 and Todd Golden '06 were in attendance. President-elect Noah Riner '06 said he had an Assembly-related conflict, while Mats Lemberger '06 and Brian Martin '06 were at a review session for their astronomy midterm. Heintz left the meeting early to attend the same review session.
Hildreth said after the meeting that she is not concerned about the attendance rate and the candidates' absences.
"Usually every term during midterm weeks we have relatively low attendance," she said, "but this is certainly nothing to worry about."
