The ongoing renovations happening to Bailey Library seem to be the gift that keeps on giving this semester, as more bad news has come out about how the renovations will affect students. Announced last week via email, for the first time in recent memory, Bailey Library will not remain open 24 hours during finals week. The library will abide by its normal operating hours, closing at midnight and opening at 7:30 in the morning. Certain classrooms in Spotts World Culture building have been designated as overnight study areas and will be open until 6:00 a.m. The only reason given for this change was the ongoing renovations.
For a lot of students, Bailey Library is the ideal place to go during finals week, not just to study and do work, but also as a place to relax and unwind during what is, for many, the most stressful week of the semester. SRU students have already experienced frustration concerning the Bailey Library renovations this semester, with the main entrance being moved to the less accessible back of the building and with the T&B that used to be on the first floor of Bailey moving across the street to the lesser-used Old Union.
There has been a lot of other inconveniences for students this semester as well. Whether it has been the street construction limiting campus access, certain buildings being closed entirely or the ongoing problems with on-campus parking, students have had to put up with and adapt to a lot so far this Fall. The Rocket staff believes that, despite these problems and student frustration, SRU administration has, thus far, made a decent effort to alleviate some of these problems. While it is true that none of these problems have necessarily been completely fixed yet, it is worth noting that administration has at least made efforts towards solutions.
Several administration members have met with student leaders and groups to talk about potential fixes to parking, they did relocate T&B to give students a second option to get coffee on the go to Starbucks and the administration did think up a backup plan to the library not being open 24/7 for finals. While none of these solutions are perfect or necessarily ideal, it is nice to see that administration is thinking about students and trying to solve the problems that affect students the most.
So for now, The Rocket staff believes that the best way for students to deal with the continued frustrations is to just grin and bare it. Right now there is nothing that is going to change or be done before finals week comes around, and it is pretty clear that the university is working to resolve most of the problems present this semester. While inconvenient, the library change is not the worst thing in the world that could happen and there is backup plan for the students that need or want an overnight study space.
