For the next three weeks, starting Monday, Sullivan Library will be doing a trial run on a extended set of library hours.
The library will be open from 7 a.m. until midnight Monday though Thursday, Fridays it will open at 7 a.m. and close at 6 p.m., Saturday will stay the same, which is 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., then Sunday it will be extended to midnight as well.
Criminal Justice graduate student Ailee Kinoshita was thrilled to find out about the extended library hours. Since Kinoshita gets out of class at 9:40 p.m., the library is about to close, so there is no point for her to do anything there in 20 minutes. On top of the library closing too early, she also feels that the library should open earlier for the undergraduates. This was one of her biggest issues as an undergraduate because it opens late she would end up having to run to class.
Head librarian Sharon Le Page, who has been working at Chaminade for 10 years, said that the last time there was a trial of new hours was in the old library. However, because the turnout wasn’t what they were looking for, the idea for longer hours was squashed.
Even though the idea was once a flop, the library student worker Athena Mina, who has been working at the library for four years, thinks that the new hours are both a positive and negative idea. Mina feels that it is good because it give the master’s students a chance to come to the library and study. However the negative aspect about this is how late the library will get out, causing her safety concerns since she drives home.
But students have complained about wanting to have longer library hours. Kaipo Leopoldino, the Chaminade Student Government Association president, felt that it was overdue for a new trial of longer library hours.
Keila Ben, a junior, likes the fact that the library is opening earlier because people rush to finish and print assignments at the last minute. As for the closing at midnight, Ben feels like a later time would be helpful during midterms and finals. On multiple occasions, she wanted to go to the library, but since it isn’t open late, she ended up just studying at home.
During the process of getting the temporary library hours, CSGA had many hurdles to overcome.
It took CSGA almost two months of trying to contact the right people and getting the OK to finally go through with trial library hours.
“Sometimes we have to do things at an inconvenient hour,” Leopoldino said. “But just because it’s inconvenient for us, doesn’t mean we’re not going to do it.”
