Firestone hours change unlikely

“Given the tighter financial times we are in as an institution, it is hard to make an argument for investing significant funds in [this] option,” Burstein said, estimating that keeping the building open until 2 a.m. four days a week for most of the semester and until 4 a.m. during midterms, finals and reading periods, would cost the University “more than a couple hundred thousand dollars” each year.

USG president Josh Weinstein ’09, however, said on Friday that he will continue working to extend Firestone Library hours.

“I get a few e-mails every week asking, ‘Why isn’t Firestone open? Why isn’t it 24/7?’ ” Weinstein said, explaining that he is determined to change Firestone hours given the demand from the student body.

When Weinstein first took office and asked students to suggest priorities for his administration, he said he “got about a hundred e-mails” voicing discontent with the Firestone schedule.

The architecture of Firestone makes it difficult to keep only parts of the building open, apart from the reserve reading room, which is currently open until 2 a.m., Burstein said.

“Now it has to be either all open or not open, which means it has to be entirely heated or cooled and staffed, so if you think about it compared to Frist or Lewis, it’s a lot more expensive than those options,” he said.

Burstein and Weinstein both referred to a survey conducted by the USG and the Office of the Executive Vice President last May. Though the results of the survey are not publicly available, Weinstein said that the survey showed that there is “a sizeable population that is dissatisfied with library hours.”

Weinstein explained that while the overall student population may not feel very strongly about keeping Firestone open, library hours and access to carrels are important to a key segment of the population: juniors and seniors working on their junior papers and senior theses.

The results of the survey supported this hypothesis, Weinstein said. Students who said access to their Firestone carrel was “most important” or “very important” were likely to be “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” with library hours.

Weinstein added that the survey results prove that the average Princeton student goes to sleep between 2 and 3 a.m. on weekday nights, noting that the administration has argued against keeping Firestone open later because students would be encouraged to stay awake later.

“The mean, median and mode time is between two and three during the regular school year,” Weinstein said. “During the peak period — midterms and finals, including JP and thesis due dates — we got results that were more towards 4 a.m.”

Based on the survey data, Weinstein concluded that keeping Firestone open later “is not going to create the health issues that have been purported.”

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Burstein, meanwhile, said he believes that less expensive alternatives to keeping Firestone open all night exist, and that his office has been working with the USG to investigate those alternatives.

Frist Campus Center is open until 2 or 3 a.m. every night and 24 hours a day during midterms and finals. Burstein said that keeping Frist open “was a relatively costly option” but that the survey said that Frist is “used extensively by undergraduates” during the nighttime hours.

In addition, the newly built Lewis Library is open until 2 a.m., and residential college staffs have been working to let students know about 24-hour study spaces in the colleges.

Weinstein and Burstein said that they are planning to meet soon to discuss the results of the survey and to try to reach an agreement on the best course of action.

Library hours across the Ivies

Princeton’s library hours fall short in comparison to most Ivy League libraries. Harvard University’s Lamont Library is open 24 hours a day on weekdays. Students at Cornell can access the Uris Library’s stacks until 2 a.m. but stay in the library all night to study, while Columbia’s Butler Library has 18 “23-hour rooms” that are open for all but one hour a day and operate on a rotating schedule so that a room is open at any given time.

Dartmouth College’s Baker-Berry Library does not shut its doors until 2 a.m., while Penn’s Van Pelt library is open until 2 a.m. during the week of finals.

Yale’s Sterling Memorial Library closes at 11:45, like Firestone Library, but opens a half-hour later, at 8:30 instead of 8 a.m.