After three weeks of protest, negotiation and miscommunication, the debate over the closing of Biggs computer lab and the future of 24 hour computing on north campus remains for the most part unresolved.

The effort by students to keep Biggs lab open was unsuccessful. However the College administration has promised to install new 24 hour computers on north or central campus, though probably not the same number, and a student committee will be formed this summer to advise the College in deciding the location and nature of this space.

The closing of Biggs lab was announced two weeks ago by CIT director John Bucher in a letter to the Review. The College plans to turn the space, which was never meant to be a computer lab, into office for Reslife so that Peters basement may be used by professors.
The news reignited ongoing tensions between students and administrators over the role that students play in administrative decision making, and led to a protest which involved hundreds of students at the General Faculty meeting on May. 11.

Last Tuesday, roughly fifty students, led by Student Senator Vivek Bharathan, marched to Cox to deliver a petition to President Nancy Dye stressing the need for a facility comparable to Biggs. Dye was not in her office at the time, but Barathan and eight other students met with Dean of the College Clayton Koppes. Koppes described the meeting as “very constructive.”

“We want a lab with 24 hour access, and from our meeting with Dean Koppes it sounds like the administration is open to this idea as well,” Bharathan said.

The proposed solutions include installing computers in Burton or Wilder and keeping Mudd A-level open 24 hours. Koppes also said that the school was planning to install new computer in Max Kade House.

The Mudd solution would be ideal according to Bharathan, but it presents special challenges for security.

“In order to prevent people from taking books down to A-Level without checking them out, waiting for the library to close, and then leaving with the books, there has to be a monitor on duty,” Bharathan said. “There are a number of other issues, including fire safety, security of the labs, etc. that have to be worked around.”

Koppes expressed optimism that the issues could be worked out this summer.

“A number of students who are going to be on campus this summer have volunteered on identifying alternatives to Biggs and solutions to this situation,” he said. “We’re very pleased that this group has formed. It would have been a good idea if these discussions had happened earlier but we’re going to have a satisfactory outcome.”

Bucher was optimistic about the outcome for next year, but expressed some doubts about cooperation between students and administration.

“I’ve tried to get input from students in the past but it hasn’t always been successful,” Bucher said.

Bharathan, a graduating senior was highly satisfied with the student response to Biggs’ closing.

“I think this was a clear example of what students can do when an important issue like this comes up,” he said. “We had a group of people who came together around an issue, got together a large number of people, voiced their dissatisfaction with the administration’s actions, and most importantly, followed through by unfolding the process, meeting with the departments concerned, and working out an agreement whereby everyone can benefit.”

He stressed, however, that any real change in the working relationship between students and faculty will only happen in slow, small steps.

“Patience is incredibly hard when we’re only here for four years,” he said. “But it takes a great deal of patience to be prepared to make incremental changes and that’s the only way this will happen, incrementally.”