Editorial
A-level not enough

If someone had been walking around A-level of Mudd Library last Sunday evening, they would have heard the tip tapping of computer keyboards, the occasional turning of pages, the “wah-wah-wah” of Mudd’s air circulation system and the tense silence of focused students. And, if they stuck around long enough — until 2 a.m. to be precise — they would have seen a security guard herding these students out into the cold night to fend for themselves and find another quiet place to continue their work.The controversy surrounding the closing of the Biggs computer lab at the end of last year was centered around the need for all students to have 24-hour computer access, even if they did not own a computer. The administration cited space and budget concerns as the reasons for closing Biggs. In an attempt to accommodate the students’ concerns, a 24-hour computer lab was created in the west end of Burton Hall’s basement. All was well...except for the Obies who study in A-level.

The appeal of the Biggs computer lab was not only that it housed many computers (more than twice the number now in the Burton lab), or even that it was open 24 hours. The real appeal was that it was not in a dorm. People go to the library to study because it is more conducive to their study habits than a dorm, with fewer distractions, less noise and the added psychological impact of working in a place intended solely for that purpose.Seeing other people doing work and not having to watch people not doing work is sometimes useful when studying for an important test or writing a paper the night before it is due. There is just something about the library that helps some people get in a better mindset for doing homework. Judging by the heavy use of A-level, the students who benefit from these surroundings do not stop studying at 2 a.m. by choice.

The beauty of Biggs was that, when the library closed, there remained a space where students could go if they could not yet call it a night. Equipped with computers as well as booths and tables, it was a smaller version of A-level. Yes, the computer lab in Burton theoretically allows 24-hour access to a computer for people who need it. But what about the students who used Biggs because of its work-conducive environment? The Burton lab does not meet the needs of that group of students. When Mudd’s doors lock at 2 a.m. where can all the late-night study loungers go? Back to the dorms they flee? Back to their rooms, with the distractions and with their roommates watching movies? Perhaps to the lounges, full of late-night gamers and people making Easy-Mac? To the Burton basement computer lab, where they can hear the gleeful shouts and laughter of their fellow classmates out on North Quad?

The late-night A-level kids need a place to go. A place that is not in a dorm, that has computing facilities and that is filled with the potent atmosphere of scholars hard at work. Proposals made to the administration and CIT last year about leaving part of the Science Center open were thrown out after problems regarding the safety of students were considered too enormous to overcome. Perhaps some collaboration between CIT, the administration and Safety and Security may yield a solution that could be implemented in the near future. Until then, the destiny of the A-levelers is to be stranded at 2 a.m. without fail, tossed into the night to rejoin the never-ending quest for the perfect late-night study space.
–Managing Editor, Faith Richards
–Chief News Editor, Josh Keating
–Commentary Editors, Casey Ashenhurst and Tiffany N. Perry
 
 

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