Admittedly, I'm the type of student who is willing to take full advantage of the library basement's 24-hour accommodations.
My dorm room is too dark, my dorm lounge has no desks and I have the most dysfunctional habit of saving all of my work until the night before it's due, when I ritually convince myself that deadlines sit higher on the priority list than sleep and health. Call me a procrastinator; call me an overachiever. You wouldn't be the first one.
Regardless, I have spent the past seven days in Van Pelt preparing for the excruciating series of exams and term papers that inevitably fall just before Spring Break each year. It's the middle of the second semester; we all saw it coming. But despite the stresses of what can only be described as intense cramming, time management has been the least of my worries.
Van Pelt closes at midnight. After noticing how crowded it was on Monday afternoon (I had to search both the third and fourth floors before finding an available desk on the fifth), I realized squeezing seven stories worth of students into Rosengarten's single story would produce some difficulties. So I decided to take the high road. At 11:30 p.m., I packed up my bag, sent my computer into hibernation and headed down to the basement, expecting to beat the crowd.
I can't say I've ever been to the circus, but I'm almost positive this was the next best thing.
Students were everywhere. Every desk was taken; every table was occupied by groups of kids who, more often than not, looked like they had never even met. Students were sprawled out on the floor and shoved into corners. There were four people to each three-person sofa. Every table in Mark's Caf‚ was the center of an individual social scene.
Students who, like me, thought they would be wise to arrive a half hour before the masses were the masses. And every three minutes, a new mass would come pouring down the stairs from the first floor of Van Pelt.
After realizing that searching for a work space would be a waste of my time, I found myself standing in the middle of the floor watching newcomers enter the basement, stop in their tracks, and allow an expression of total disbelief to come over their faces in the least subtle way.
What's worse is that, with such a high density of students, the general sense of quietude that usually commands a library was completely lost. People were talking over those who were whispering and shouting over those who were talking. Students who were reluctant to settle on the floor continued to pace around each section of Rosengarten in hopes of spotting someone on the verge of leaving. "This is like searching for a parking space at a 6ers game!" one student exclaimed.
During easily anticipated weeks of midterms, Van Pelt needs to stay open past midnight. The library can't expect hundreds of students to fit comfortably into a single floor that has far fewer tables than could fit into its wide, empty spaces.
Not only is this setting physically unpleasant for students, it's also much more distracting and renders students less productive than they could be if they had sufficient workspace. "When this happens, I usually go home after a half hour because I can't sit on the floor for that long. I end up not being able to concentrate," said College sophomore Eric Zeiger.
At the end of each semester, during reading period and final exam weeks, Van Pelt - which comprises all of the higher floors of the library - remains open until 2:00 a.m. Even Mark's caf‚, our ultimate source of caffeine and reinforcement, stays open later. The advantage of having these accommodations for two extra hours is phenomenal, and absolutely necessary.
The library should be able to find out when the majority of midterms occur each semester and treat them as many students do: with as much importance as final exams. True, they're often spread across a span of a few weeks, usually in the first third of each semester. But certain weeks - the week before Spring break, for instance - is annually foreseeable. And the influx of Rosengarten inhabitants is undeniable.
If students are willing to utilize the library's 24-hour service to uphold Penn's academic rep, the least Penn can do is provide us with an ideal working environment.
"We've never had a request to stay open late for midterms," said Marjorie Hassen, assistant director for research and instructional services. After this week, I think it's safe to say a great many of us would appreciate it. Hopefully this column will be considered a formal request.
Jamie France is a College freshman from Plantation, Fla. Her e-mail address is france@dailypennsylvanian.com. La Petite Freshman appears on Fridays.
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