Madeline Bryce/Daily Nexus
The UC Santa Barbara library announced last Friday that it has new, limited hours of operation: only on Thursdays from 1-1:19 p.m. The announcement followed a statement a few weeks ago when the library announced that it would limit its previous 24-hour policy.
The initial announcement was met with backlash, but students reacted to the new (not even half) hours in various ways.
“When they announced that the lib wasn’t gonna be open 24 hours per day, I was mad at first. But then, I thought about the last time I went to the library and I couldn’t remember it,” second-year communication major Hannah Noodleman said.
Others took to social media to weigh in on the issue.
“yo what are the new lib hours,” @jshooter05 posted on the UCSB 2028 communal Snapchat story. The community was grateful for his insight into the issue.
A primary concern that students had with the new library hours is the fact that less study time in the library could impact academic performance.
“How could they have limited the library hours? When I go to the library, I need to spend at least six hours there. I need to settle in, get a snack at The Arbor, play Hay Day for 20 minutes, call my mom, work for a few minutes and repeat,” third-year biopsychology major Gigi Chen said.
After the student community’s rowdy response to the issue, UCSB decided to respond and explain its reasoning for the new, limited hours.
“We are experiencing severe budget cuts. We decided to reallocate funds from greedy students trying to use facilities to the new, poor chancellor,” UCSB said in a statement on Instagram on Friday. “We have decided to align ourselves with the general political trend of the country, which involves what we call ‘trickle up economics.’”
Other campus facilities followed suit after the library’s statement. The UCEN announced that it will now only be open from 12-3 p.m. every day, the SRB will be open only two days per week and all residence halls will close for two hours every night from 1-3 a.m.
“We were not able to employ enough resident assistants to cover all hours of the night,” UCSB Residential & Community Living announced on Tuesday. “Since students are not allowed to be in the residence halls without RA assistance, they will unfortunately have to evacuate the residence halls every night, only for a few hours.”
Despite student outrage, UCSB pledges to do whatever it takes to limit student access to resources and help. It would probably be acceptable if they hadn’t taken the campus Jamba Juice away.
Joseph R. Biden has never been to the UCSB library.
