Lab hours freeze up availability
Campus Times
December 11, 1998
cartoon by Stephanie Lesniak
It is so thoughtful of the University of La Verne to think of its students'
needs during at least one week out of the school year. Up until this point
they have failed to make an attempt to do anything about the complaints
for dining hall meals, schedules and maintenance requests. However, it seems
finals week brings out the best of the University and its students.
One simple change is made during finals week that brings smiles to the
faces across campus. Students need to wish no longer, because this is their
week in which the simple wish of extra computer lab hours comes to life.
The University has actually given students the opportunity to have an additional
two hours at the computer labs. That is correct. The computer lab will be
open until midnight instead of its regular time of 10 p.m.
The current facility hours are usually not convenient for the students
of the University. If the lab closes at 10 p.m. and a student has a term
paper due the next morning at 8 a.m., there would be some difficulty for
the student to get the job done. That is plenty of time, but what if the
same scenario said that the student, like many students at ULV, had classes
a majority of the day and had a night class from 6:30-10 p.m. Then when
is the student supposed to complete the paper? This is the scenario that
many ULV students are faced with everyday. Either they just deal with it
by learning never to take night classes or they just skip class in order
to make it to the computer lab before getting kicked out.
Another scenario is for a student who has a night class from 6:30-10
p.m. and they work during the day. The student has a term paper due at 7:30
a.m. but unfortunately the computer labs do not even open until 8 a.m. Once
again, the student is faced with making some decisions between turning in
the paper late, calling in sick to work or skipping class. These decisions
would not have to have been considered if labs were open 24 hours, or at
least until midnight, regularly.
It is bad enough that the students get kicked out of the computer lab
at 10 p.m., but why the library? This means they cannot get peace and quiet,
no research will be completed and they will not have the chance to type
up their papers in the computer lab. Sure, the student should not have put
off everything until the last minute, but it is very common with the busy
schedules most people have and this same scenario will happen sometime in
their lives. So, the common solution would be to use the computers in the
library to type up the paper as they do the research at the same time. Well,
that is just the problem. There are computers in the library, but they are
not available for use by the students because of the lack of work study
students.
This should not be the case. Tuition pays partly for such facilities
to be used not just to be admired that we have them. What is the point of
adding another computer lab? What is the point of renovating the library?
It is nice that we are privileged to have more than one computer lab at
the University and we have a nice-looking library, but it would be even
better if we had the chance to take advantage of the facilities. Either
the University does something about this issue, or students will just have
to scrape the money that is left after paying tuition to invest in a laptop
or personal computer.
