ESPOSITO: Rutgers must reopen libraries fully
Column: Unapologetically
Some of my favorite memories of pre-coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at Rutgers were spent at the library during finals week at the end of each semester.
Yes, I am telling the truth. I would walk into the library on the Sunday before finals week and would not walk (or stagger) out with a sense of finality until the following weekend. And I was not the only one. On the cusp of winter or summer vacations, the library would be packed with huge cafeteria-style tables of kids sitting side by side.
If you wanted the kind of quiet that you could hear a pin drop, you would go all the way upstairs to the seventh floor, East Asia section and hide between the bookshelves. If you wanted to meet with a group for an all-night study session, you would go downstairs to the Scarlet Cafe, with a sometimes broken espresso vending machine at your service.
I preferred the main floor. To the left as soon as you walked in, there was a brightly lit room, filled with cluttered bookshelves and mixed and matched furniture. The interior design was not exactly modern, but it had an old charm. I would walk all the way to the back wall, which was taken up mostly by windows.
There I would do my best to secure a couple of chairs at the long tables. And once I acquired them, they would be mine for the week. My friends and I would take turns guarding the chairs. We would go home to nap in shifts. One person would be selected to pick up the takeout we ordered (usually Chinese).
It was the sense of camaraderie that I loved so much. It was the fact that even though everyone in the library's eyes were bloodshot from staring at their computer screens, empty cups of coffee were strewn all over the place and you could practically feel the anxiety looming like a dark, grey, cloud in the air, we were all in this together.
If your textbooks were overwhelming you, you could take a 15-minute break and walk around the library, seeing almost anyone you know from campus. The library was a meeting ground — a place to not feel so alone when anxiety and depression from finals are getting to be too much. It is comforting to see everyone going through exactly what you are going through.
So, as the University came back to life earlier this semester, something I was looking forward to was spending time in the library once again. One Friday, prepared for a weekend of marathon studying, I brought my mask, proof of vaccination and backpack and headed to Alexander Library: only to be promptly kicked out an hour later, at 6 p.m.
When a worker alerted me that the library was closing and to collect my belongings, I was in shock. I racked my brain wondering if maybe there was an issue at the library, a power outage or construction. Until I looked up the schedule to see that all Rutgers Libraries close by 6 p.m. on Fridays, and all but one are closed on Saturdays. Even on Sundays, Alexander Library is 1 of only 2 that are open.
So, students can pack into the libraries, but when the sun goes down, they must leave? How can the University boast of being reopened if the library, a staple of almost every college student's experience, is a shell of what it once was? The library is most beneficial at night, when students may need a quiet sanctuary on the weekends to study and avoid nightlife.
There is no alternative to studying at night when the cafes and coffee shops close, so many students will be reduced to studying in bed, which some experts argue is bad for your health. The reopening of the libraries should include the late-night hours for all students' benefit. For the sake of mental health and productivity, the library must be a resource for all. And with proper precautions, there is no benefit to these new, minimal hours.
Laura Esposito is in the School of Arts and Sciences sophomore majoring in journalism and political science. Her column, "Unapologetically," runs on alternate Fridays.
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