Efforts to create a 24 hour study space on campus continue to be deterred by obstacles.
USG President Matt Margolin '05 and his board planned a focus group to meet about the issue twice this week. For students who work late into the morning hours, the meetings at Firestone Library could have meant a place to go study all night.
However, Margolin's desire to bring up this issue has been troubled by miscommunication about meeting times, a misunderstanding of the meetings' content and a lack of funds to implement the idea.
Margolin sent an email last week asking for interested students to participate in the discussions. While seven students signed up to attend, even fewer actually did.
The meetings were originally scheduled to occur at 10 a.m. on Tuesday and 11 a.m. on Wednesday. But, when students arrived at the focus group session, Firestone staff, not knowing the actual schedule, told them to come back later.
Only two undergraduates ended up attending the rescheduled 1 p.m. Tuesday meeting.
"The impression that the email gave was that we were going to discuss the actual study space, but when we got there, the meeting took a different route," Brooke Stoddard '05, who participated in the meeting, said.
Instead of asking the two students to describe their ideas on where and how to make a 24-hour study space, three architects for Firestone Library and two administrators including Associate University Librarian for Administrative Services, Dorothy Pearson, directed the conversation in the way of suggestions for a better Firestone.
"The discussion was entirely geared toward hearing our thoughts on how to improve Firestone for the future," Stoddard said. " If we wanted a cafe, printers, a quiet space, different lighting, or books for a possible late night place. I was more passionate about making a new place to study late into the night since Chancellor Green is not available anymore."
While the talks led Stoddard to believe that improvements might be made to Firestone, Pearson said that the meeting was just for idea gathering.
"We have no funding to implement changes at this point," she said.
According to Margolin, in the past, the administration and President Tilghman have not supported this idea.
"They feel that this would encourage studying [and] staying up late," he said.
Despite these problems, Margolin said he plans to continue pressing the study space.
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