Guess the dates when: the M.D. Anderson library closes early, the Fitness and Wellness center is unavailable, the A.D. Bruce religion center can’t be accessed, the UC/satellite are on lock down, the only source of food on campus is from the overpriced vending machines, and not all buildings are inaccessible.
No, it‘s not just Christmas break; the campus closes down as if it were a business not a university.
The university goes comatose on dates like Labor Day, Martin Luther King Jr. day, and others in-between. Don’t forget weekends, which make living on campus more harsh and inconvenient. A few buildings here and there are indeed open (for a pitiful few hours), but “open” doesn’t include all of the services in those buildings. Imagine having a working car with no gas pedal.
Contrarily, students are still out and about. Case in point: there is a severe lack of 24-hour establishments on campus.
The library is a centerpiece of this issue. On a normal Friday, closing time is at 9:45 p.m. Saturday is worse, at 7:45 p.m. Yes, most students are off campus Friday and Saturday nights, partying, dining, doing anything but studying. However, plenty of us enjoy using weekend evenings for studying in the quiet comfort of the M.D. Anderson library. There is an invigorating aura that cannot be found in a dorm room.
Fortunately the library has a short 24-hour operation window during finals, but that just yells “We could do this all the time, but choose not to”.
It wouldn’t necessarily be “simple” for UH to solve this problem, but it would be practical. There wouldn’t even have to be any new areas built. Just make some of the facilities on campus open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Generally speaking, students don’t have the budget to throw money away every night at the UC games room, or travel downtown for excitement. What most students who spend 99 percent of their time on campus need is as much access to the Library, Wellness Center, and Religious center as possible. This is a necessity for students because all three of these buildings provide essential services for students and at no real cost. Study areas, exercise facilities, and social atmosphere are the obvious examples that these buildings provide.
There is one 24-hour area on campus for any student at any time: The small, and easily crowded M.D. Anderson lounge. Yes, the cold, dead, metallic, purgatory-like doctor’s office of a student lounge that offers stiff seats, frozen processed meals, computers that break down periodically, and a general feeling of ill ease. Also it’s a place where you can expect at some point after sundown to be asked to present your Student ID. Oh yes, students feel very welcome there.
My critics may point out that those staying at the Cougar Place have a commons room, as do those at the Quads, Lofts and the Towers, but that points out the real problem. Students at the cougar place only get to go to the cougar place, quads just get quads, lofts just get lofts, and Towers just get towers. When everything is locked, your Cougar Card isn’t going to gain you access to the individual areas, and those areas aren’t prime studying territory.
UH wants to be a Tier One university. UH has the research funding, the willpower and momentum, but one of the few things it still needs is the support of students — especially those who will graduate and become donating giving alumni. If students were encouraged to be on campus at any hour of any day they might start to think of the campus as a home worth giving back to, instead of a cold institution or dreaded workplace.
There is a plethora of students sharing the sentiment. This may fan the flames, but it will eventually end up in the archives. If you want to do something about the situation, speak up.
David Haydon is a political science junior and may be reached at [email protected].
Libary Fall Hours:M-Thr. 7am-12:45am, Fri.-7am to 9:45am, Sat. 8am-7:45pm, Sun. 12pm-12:45am…etc. What else you want…a sleeping bed and a hot shower. LOL
Not all people like being awake at 7 in the morning. In virtually any other major University the library would be open 24 hours a day without exception or excuse. The University would pull in profit off of keeping restaurants open later and even if it didn’t it would be an excellent service to provide for the well being of its on campus residences over the weekend. The school has the tools to improve just not the will, the leadership, or the brains at the moment. It is a Houston flaw that we let our city shutdown at 11 at the latest and don’t foster growth in tourism and overall positive experience that comes to catering to all hours.
Ooop! that " library".
Maybe you haven't been on campus for too long, but there is a 24-hour computer lab on the other side of the library called the C-Site. This is my fifth year as a student here and living on campus and never, EVER during the midnight to 8am hours has that computer lab been full. All you need is your student ID to gain access. The only times it isn't open for 24-hours is during the summer and on national holidays. You also have to take into account that the University of Houston IS a public, government run university, so it has to adhere to national holidays and such. And you can always go online to the library, CRWC and AD Bruce religion center websites to check out their schedule for their hours of operation so you aren't blindsided.
And coming from an economical view, there are over 38,000 students attending this university. What percentage do you think actually use the library on a Saturday after 7:45pm? It would cost the university more money to run longer hours on days that they know not even 20% of the student population are on campus.
Anyway, most of the people who are on campus after midnight probably live on or near campus, so yes, they will have access to their respective study lounges in their respective areas. If you don't live on campus and are here past midnight….then I suggest getting to know someone who does and use those study rooms in their living area. It's not that difficult..
And what's wrong with being asked for identification? I personally wouldn't want some random person who doesn't go to this school to gain access to what I am paying for…for free. Heck no. Card me as much as you want. Plus, it's not like they're carding all the time. They only do that in the library during finals when it's open for 24 hours. It's a security issue when you have people walking around at 3am and you don't know if they're students here or not. And how hard is it to pull out your ID when asked? What do you think the purpose of an ID is? I guess you really don't pay attention, but for your information, on the back of the CougarOne ID card, it clearly states that it "must be presented upon demand to University personnel." So there. Case closed.
But, I will agree that the Dining Services on campus need to get on it with setting reasonable hours of operation for everyone. Although the new Fresh Food Co. cafeteria (between the Towers and Cougar Village) is open until midnight seven days a week. But, yes… that would be my main issue with hours on campus.
Actually with the average student age at the University of Houston being given between 25-26 years old, I'm inclined to agree with the author. Many of us here are back trying to get serious with our higher level education.
I know for a few of my friends and I UH has offered us an excellent second chance at a university. Just this last Friday three of us met up at the library around 5 and were kind of shocked that to find that it closed at 9:45. We were even more shocked when we found that there was a wait to move into a empty study room so what was meant to be a late night study session so we could enjoy our Saturday and Sunday got cut disappointingly short.
If you come to school during the week after 5 o'clock to use the Rec or go to the library you find a still-bustling campus with people attending night classes due to work or family commitments during the day and other than the always-packed Wendy's, there are very few dining or coffee option. I understand that it does not make sense to have the whole Satellite in constant operation but I believe it would do UH well to bump out the hours of the Starbucks and the convenience stores around campus. As a student who is taking one of the relatively new Weekend U options for a class I also see numerous students trying to get into the Satellite; I'm not saying just one or two I'm talking a steady stream.
I know that we are still more or less a "commuter" school but I started here in 2006 and when I came back this year in just four years I saw a HUGE difference around here. If we are going to start rapidly evolving into the Tier 1 campus this school has the potential to be now would be the time to start ratcheting up around-the-clock operations here and make this school more accessible.
Good article with some excellent points.
>If students were encouraged to be on campus at any hour of any day they might start to think of the campus as a home worth giving back to, instead of a cold institution or dreaded workplace.
Great point. Thanks for voicing these sentiments. So many people are still around after dark that it seems pointless that the only place for food is vending machines. Why is the Den virtually the only place open on campus after midnight?
You sir are a hero. Congratulations on being one of the few people left with testicles.