Pfoho Fights To Preserve Hilles

In anticipation of next year’s renovations to Hilles Library, the Pforzheimer House Committee (Pfoho HoCo) is petitioning against potential changes that would reduce library hours, librarian services, and access to reserves.

Many students were notified of additional changes to the library in March by flyers hung in Hilles, although initial plans to renovate Hilles were released a year ago,

In April 2004, students were informed that Hilles’ four stories would be reduced to one, with the first floor undergoing renovations and serving as the library. The top three stories would be transferred to the College to be used as a general space for students.

“When looking at budgetary constraints,” said Beth S. Brainard, Harvard College Library (HCL) Director of Communications, “we wanted to accommodate to Quad students, but couldn’t justify keeping a full library open that was basically a duplicate of Lamont.”

While the PhoHo HoCo’s petition addresses the reductions, it does not protest the renovations, according to Jonathan B. Johnnidis ’05, who drafted the petition along with several HoCo members.

“We are thrilled that renovations are happening; the problem is, the library is going to be closed more than it is open,” said Johnnidis.

Pfoho HoCo Vice President Joshua D. Monahan ’06 said that in talking to House masters about the planned changes to Hilles, he found that not many knew much of what was going on.

“We’re petitioning something that we had very little notification of, both students and House masters,” he said.

Since then, he has been working with the Pfoho HoCo on this issue.

“We have an enthusiastic ring of support from students,” said Johnnidis.

Although the petition has only been tabled for two nights in Pfoho, Monahan said that it has already garnered over 100 signatures, mainly from Quad students and resident tutors.

According to Monahan, the committee is making plans to table in other Houses in the coming weeks, especially in Currier and Cabot.

Monahan said he hopes to submit the petition to Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 before the end of the academic year.

Specifically, the petition raises concerns over proposed reductions and urges the University to keep Hilles “accessible” and “useful.”

Brainard said that HCL is “also very concerned about providing a library for Quad students, so what we did was try to determine the best way to still provide service. This decision was made with a lot of thought and input from FAS, students and administration.”

Johnnidis said that the petition asks for hours “roughly in line with current Hilles and Lamont hours”—i.e., remaining open until 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Hilles’ hours for next year were determined by examining current patterns of use at the library, said Brainard.

Starting next year, according to HCL’s current plans, Hilles would be closed on Saturdays. The library’s new hours would be from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Wednesday and 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays. On Sunday, Hilles would still be open from 10 a.m. to 1 a.m.

Johnnidis called these proposed hours “problematic.”

“We’re asking the libraries to be open so that students can actually use them,” he said.

Brainard said she understands that closing Saturday might be inconvenient, but that “we can explore better days for the library to be closed.”

Next year, HCL will collect data and track student use to determine what should ultimately be done about the hours.

In response to the potential reduction of available reserves at Hilles, the petition asks the library to provide a full reserve system for Core as well as non-Core courses.

The proposed reserves collection would maintain all reserves for courses in the Core Curriculum, but according to Johnnidis, there would be no funding for new materials and coursepacks.

Brainard said that details regarding the new reserves system for Hilles and other libraries have yet to be determined. HCL is currently revising the entire reserves system, with the new system taking effect in June.

In another cutback, the current staff of about a dozen will be replaced with an “evening supervisor” and two student workers called “reference prefects.”

In response to the plan for reference prefects, the petition pushes for at least a part-time librarian, or an option in which students are allowed to sign up for hours to meet with one.

But Brainard said the new reference prefects will be well trained to help students. In addition, Quad students will be able to schedule on-site consultation with a librarian and special presentations on the use of library resources will be periodically held for students.

As an alternative solution, she said that with expanded shuttle services and Lamont being open 24 hours a day and five days a week, “we hope that Quad students will take advantage of that.”

However, Monahan said, “any kind of negative change in the services that are provided to the Quad is still a negative change; it’s still going to affect the view of people in the Quad that we’re getting shafted.”

—Staff writer Jessica C. Chiu can be reached at jcchiu@fas.harvard.edu.