Shortened Van Pelt hours anger students

Most patrons of Van Pelt Library would agree that the reverberating rhythms of jackhammers and drills are not conducive to studying. Library administrators had similar concerns when they changed the ground-floor Rosengarten Reserve room's late-night hours two weeks ago to allow the noisiest construction to take place when the library is closed. But since then, many students studying in Rosengarten have expressed concern about the early closing hours. Since February 9, Rosengarten has been closing at midnight Sunday through Thursday nights. Hours in the rest of the library -- which used to close considerably earlier than Rosengarten -- remain unchanged and now closely mirror Rosengarten's hours. That will soon change. According to library spokesperson Patricia Renfro, Rosengarten will keep its doors open until 3 a.m. on weeknights beginning March 16. On April 1, the area will return to its regular 7 a.m. closing time. Still, many students said they were disappointed that they could not find comparable study space after midnight. Although Steinberg-Dietrich Hall is open 24 hours, many students complain that it is too crowded and that desks in classrooms are not quite the same as large library tables. "If they were going to close down the place, they should have made arrangements to open other buildings," said Undergraduate Assembly Vice Chairperson Samara Barend. "That would have been the responsible thing to do." The early closing hours were the topic of discussion at a Tangible Change Committee meeting last Thursday, when a student who had been "displaced from her regular study location" shared her complaints with the student-run group, according to Barend, the committee chairperson and a College junior. But Barend, a Daily Pennsylvanian columnist, said that after addressing the issue with Renfro earlier this week, she feels "assured" that the hours will be "brought back to normal" later this spring. Construction crews are currently working on the fourth phase of the library's rehabilitation project. In December, they completed the new reference facilities and study area on the building's first floor. Renovations to the library's main entrance and circulation center should be completed by August. Renfro said that library administrators didn't realize until the end of January that they would need to close Rosengarten at midnight, rather than 2 a.m., the time it was closing at the start of the semester. She explained that the construction crews needed a larger pocket of time to allow them to do the "very, very noisy demolition and drilling" each night. Two stairwells -- one leading from the ground floor to the main floor, and one leading from the main floor to the mezzanine -- are being demolished between midnight and 8 a.m. nightly as part of the renovations to the building's east side. "We're really sorry about [the early closing], but we can't have that noisy construction going on while [Rosengarten] is open," Renfro said. "It's just impossible for people to stay there." She said that Van Pelt does not "have any alternatives for late at night," adding that Steinberg-Dietrich is the only other late-night study option she could suggest. But some students do not like that option. College junior Paul Christner said he does not study at Steinberg-Dietrich because "the library's a better environment to study in than classrooms, per se." Barend said she still thinks "accommodations need to be made in other locations," citing College and Logan halls as possibilities. She added that she worries that the imminent closing of other University buildings, such as Houston Hall, for renovations will lead to similar concerns for alternate space.