How Much Does It Really Cost?

It’s a cry that falls on indifferent ears. For too long, the Harvard undergraduate community has asked for later library hours, and for too long the administration has smiled, nodded and dismissed us, arguing complacently that such a move would be unviable. And perhaps, for the Harvard College Library (HCL) system, it is not currently possible for hours to be extended. The recent layoffs at HCL are compelling proof that the library system is facing a grave budgetary crisis.

But as crass as it is to remind the administration that Harvard has an endowment of $19.5 billion, it does. I understand, of course, that Harvard’s operating budget is gargantuan and that despite the commensurate endowment, the University isn’t dripping with excess cash. Nevertheless, the pitifully short library hours need not remain an immutable fact of life.

Just this semester, Cornell took the step to make Uris Library (one of its main undergraduate libraries) open 24 hours a day from Sunday through Thursday. And Cornell is not alone; both Dartmouth and Columbia keep at least a room of one of their libraries open 24 hours a day.

Sarah E. Thomas, the University Librarian of Cornell, wrote that the decision was made because “We had been conducting surveys that told us students wanted longer hours, 24 hours. We know that students work all hours of the day, and that the library is often preferred as a place to study over residence halls or apartments.”

If you think this reasoning sounds applicable to Harvard, you’re right. To no one’s surprise, Beth Brainard, Director of Communications for HCL mentioned in an interview that surveys show that Harvard undergrads are also interested in extending library hours. She also confirmed that the primary reason they haven’t decided to extend library hours is due to fiscal constraints.

So what exactly is this daunting sum that Cornell forked over to appease its raging undergraduates? In our exclusive e-mail interview, Thomas cited a colossal $55,000! Alas, how shall poor Harvard ever come up with such a sum? Perhaps 24 hour libraries are destined to remain an elusive dream of undergrads.

Granted, HCL is facing budgetary constraints. And, what cost Cornell $55,000, may indeed cost Harvard more (after all, you can get away with paying workers less if you live in The-Middle-of-Nowhere, N.Y.). But it can’t be too much to expect of Harvard to increase the library budget by what would amount to 0.00226% of next year’s interest on the endowment—assuming it continues to grow at last years pace of 12.5 percent and the cost to Harvard is the same as Cornell’s (two perhaps oversimplistic, but illustrative, assumptions).

It’s easy to see how extending library hours would make a significant difference to the lives of students at a college where studying long hours is the norm. Almost all students here live on campus, many of whom do not have singles, and there is a conspicuous paucity of common space conducive to studying.

Anyone who has taken the survey for the Allston Planning Committee knows that Harvard is considering a student center in Allston (read: Siberia). How can Harvard not find the funds to make the more modest, more immediate and more local step of extending library hours?

Brainard did not fail to mention that plans to extend library hours are often revisited by the administration. Perhaps therein lies the problem. All I ask is that instead of giving perennial lip service to this critical issue, the administration give the viability of extended hours genuine consideration.

—Michael A. Feldstein ’07, a Crimson editorial comper, lives in Grays Hall.