Sleepless In Cabot

Sleep. None of us get enough of it. Study after study has shown that Americans are walking zombies, depriving their bodies of the essential rest they so desperately need.

We're also neurotic and stressed out. People are working longer hours than they did a few decades ago. New technologies have only created tighter and more unreasonable deadlines. The report that might have spent a day or two traveling by mail is now expected to arrive that afternoon by fax.

This is a volatile combination, one reminiscent of a Harvard January. The stress of exams combined with heroic feats of sleep deprivation drives some people over the edge. Recent suicides at Harvard, admittedly extreme, highlight the fact that the University has a problem on its hands. Students feel excessive pressure, and all too often no voice of reason is there to comfort them. In this light, the University's decision to open Cabot Library 24 hours a day during reading period and exams is downright irresponsible. Though normally I am happy to see administrators respond to students' desires, I had hoped that they would not accede to this demand.

The university has a role in loco parentis and it therefore must not make decisions which encourage irresponsible behavior. Students will always pull all-nighters and keep strange hours; to some degree, that is what college is all about. The University's "parental" responsibilities should not extend to patrolling dorm rooms and enforcing curfews.

But few of us would disagree that working all night as a regular habit is unhealthy, particularly at a school where personal and academic pressures for certain students are already over-whelming. Anyone who has visited other colleges knows that Harvard is a somewhat sick place: People here work all the time.

So when the University elects to devote thousands of dollars to assure students that they can work from three until eight in the morning, it is not simply acting foolishly. It is not doing its job. I know some of the people who will "benefit" from these new nocturnal hours. They are the ones who stay in terminal rooms until the dawn breaks, the ones who sleep two hours per night and crash on the weekends, and they are students who will only be driven to worse habits if given the opportunity.

I know, I know. I sound terribly condescending. But I have seen too many cases of people pushing their minds and bodies to ungodly limits to be convinced that the average student can really be trusted. The sad fact is that we respect deadlines more than we respect our bodies. If making it more difficult to work in the pre-dawn hours encourages better habits, the University should follow that course.

Besides, why act on such an irresponsible, self-destructive student demand when there are so many others that are more important? How many Undergraduate Council candidates have to run on a platform of "a lamp in every dorm" before we get some decent lighting? This money should go to programs like Safety Walk and self-defense courses, activities that prevent violence and protect students. On the most basic level, turning the library into a Motel 6 is a case of misplaced priorities.

The truth is, the 24-hour library will have little effect (I hope) on life at Harvard. The new hours are experimental and will not last into the spring semester. But the beckoning doors of Cabot are symbolically important. They illustrate the importance of undoing the cycle of academic pressure and self-inflicted physical abuse at Harvard. We always hear about the problems with advising at Harvard, either through empty whines or mind-numbing tirades about bureaucracy. Here's a simple suggestion: every student should get a call from a tutor or a proctor at least twice a semester. Without that kind of personal contact, stressed students will continue to fall through the cracks. And maybe an older, wiser friend can furnish some perspective.

Good luck on exams. Don't forget to get some sleep.

Ethan M. Tucker's Column will continue to appear next semester.