It’s midnight and you have been distracted by your roommate, your boyfriend and your favorite Web sites for the entire evening, but you have a midterm at 9 a.m. Where do you go?
If your answer is Night Powell, think again.
The College Library will be closing at 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday starting fall quarter. Until this summer, the library had stayed open around the clock on those evenings.
UCLA librarian Gary Strong wrote in an Aug. 4 blog entry that the library system is making this cut and others to reduce this year’s operating budget by almost $1.9 million.
Closing Night Powell will save an estimated $100,000, according to Dawn Setzer, the library system’s director of library communications.
However, Night Powell is scheduled to stay open during 10th and finals week of fall quarter, Setzer said.
“(Strong) has committed to do that,” she added.
The Night Powell study space has fit as many as 350 people in the past, said Yuri Sepp, a Community Service Officer who worked at Night Powell. During finals week, Night Powell was sometimes packed to capacity at 2 a.m., Sepp said.
A lot of students who used Night Powell said they went at least a few times a week. Now they are scrambling to come up with alternatives, and many said they still have no plan.
“My daily life is drastically going to be changed,” said Om Marwah, a third-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student who studied at Night Powell regularly during the past two years.
For those students, Night Powell helped to add extra hours to overly busy days.
“In order to succeed, you have to put in late nights. It’s a fact of the game,” Marwah said.
Many students who live with roommates said that the constant presence of other people ““ especially when those people are doing things other than studying ““ can make it hard to get work done at home.
Other students said that Night Powell created a sense of community, as well as a study space.
Marwah said studying at the library while surrounded by other students who are doing the same thing helped inspire him and created a culture of hard work.
“You’re in it together with these people,” he said.
Some students said that they made new friends and ran into old ones while studying.
Night Powell created an environment in which students could introduce themselves to people they recognized from classes, and it was easier than doing so during lecture or section meetings, said King Adjei-Frimpong, a fifth-year political science student.
Until the recent decision to close Night Powell, students had all-night access to the library’s resources during the academic year.
Because the CLICC lab and the study area of Night Powell were open all night, students could print or surf the Internet at 3 a.m. on campus without having to buy ink cartridges or pay for a monthly wireless service.
“It’s unfortunate that they’re assuming that people have access to the resources (Night Powell provided),” said Sharron St. John, a fourth-year sociology student.
She listed copy machines and computer programs as two of the tools Night Powell gave students.
“I don’t have a printer. I use CLICC printers,” Marwah said. “And I use them at all hours of the night.
Students who commonly used Night Powell said they do not know where they are going to go now.
Some said they will try to study at their apartments, while others suggested doing their work during the day. But the predominant sentiment was that there is nothing else like Night Powell for UCLA students.
Marwah said the administration should look for ways to keep Night Powell alive, rather than turning to weaker alternatives.
The library could raise funds by encouraging donations from the community and families of students who use Night Powell regularly, Marwah said. Another option is to adopt a business sponsor: “Night Powell brought to you by Enzo’s Pizza,” Marwah said as an example.
He likened Powell Library to the heart of UCLA, and said shutting down Night Powell is like putting a dagger in that heart.