All Lamonsters Are Created Equal

A favorite study place for many Harvard students, Lamont Library is especially convenient because of its 24-hour availability throughout most of the week. That Lamont is open 24/5 is due to the extension of a 2005 pilot project; when the all-day, all-night schedule was made permanent, overjoyed students celebrated the occasion. Late Friday and Saturday studiers, however, were left out of the fun.

On those days, students are still shooed away at a measly 9:45 p.m. to search for a quiet place to study. Though Friday and Saturday are for some students a time for respite and partying, for a great many others it is the beginning of a productive weekend. Midterms are not always in the middle of the term, assignments are often due on Mondays, and a need for a quiet place to study can extend into the weekend. In recognition of the thousands of  varying academic schedules and personal study habits of undergraduates, Lamont should extend its Friday and Saturday hours to at least 1:00 a.m.

Even on Friday and Saturday nights, constant availability of quiet study space is important at a place like Harvard. Not all undergraduates want or need to study on Friday and Saturday nights, and this is good for them; however, their fun often interrupts the quiet diligence of their unfortunately tasked peers. The sounds of late-night festivities bleed through Harvard’s paper-thin dorm walls, and, I am told, even infiltrate into House libraries; although some of these libraries are open 24/7, they are embedded within the Houses. Indeed, is there really one of us who cannot remember at least a handful of Friday and Saturday nights spent trying to work on a paper or problem set while trying to ignore the ruckus of the party in the next entryway?

Closing the library early at the end of the week is a result of an assumption about Harvard students that does not apply to a significant portion of us. Perhaps more than anyone else, Harvard students have varied and hectic schedules. Schedules at Harvard are defined more by assignments, essays, and inconsistent midterm dates than a five-day workweek schedule that ends with T.G.I.F.

The closing time of 9:45 p.m. is also early enough that it takes away from the utility of the library for those who want to study before the closing hour. A student looking for a place to study at 8:45 p.m. has little incentive to lug her laptop-and-textbook-laden backpack to the library for only one hour of studying. Instead, the student is forced to wander through the dark in quest of an empty common room or an open classroom to achieve some extended silence. The extension of hours, by reducing inconveniences like these, would not only make the library useful for three more hours, but also more visited before 9:45 p.m.

Moreover, the original shift to a 24-hour-open Lamont was partly Harvard’s effort to catch up with other universities, but as is evident, it is incomplete. Many schools, including Harvard’s peer institutions like Stanford, Columbia, and Dartmouth have school-wide libraries that welcome their students 24 hours, seven days a week. There is no reason why Harvard should offer less.

An extension of Lamont hours would be no doubt welcomed and used by many. Embracing more diverse schedules, accommodating more hungry brains, and catching up with peer institutions can only be good. And, after all, although it would be very much useful to our Lamonstrous students, an extension of only three hours on two days of the week is a rather modest proposal.

Bilguun Ulammandakh ’14, a Crimson editorial comper, lives in Mower Hall.