Lab hours freeze up availability

editorial cartoon by Stephanie Lesniak
editorial cartoon by Stephanie Lesniak

It is so thoughtful of the University of La Verne to think of its students’ needs during at least one week out of the school year. Up until this point they have failed to make an attempt to do anything about the complaints for dining hall meals, schedules and maintenance requests. However, it seems finals week brings out the best of the University and its students.

One simple change is made during finals week that brings smiles to the faces across campus. Students need to wish no longer, because this is their week in which the simple wish of extra computer lab hours comes to life. The University has actually given students the opportunity to have an additional two hours at the computer labs. That is correct. The computer lab will be open until midnight instead of its regular time of 10 p.m.

The current facility hours are usually not convenient for the students of the University. If the lab closes at 10 p.m. and a student has a term paper due the next morning at 8 a.m., there would be some difficulty for the student to get the job done. That is plenty of time, but what if the same scenario said that the student, like many students at ULV, had classes a majority of the day and had a night class from 6:30-10 p.m. Then when is the student supposed to complete the paper? This is the scenario that many ULV students are faced with everyday. Either they just deal with it by learning never to take night classes or they just skip class in order to make it to the computer lab before getting kicked out.

Another scenario is for a student who has a night class from 6:30-10 p.m. and they work during the day. The student has a term paper due at 7:30 a.m. but unfortunately the computer labs do not even open until 8 a.m. Once again, the student is faced with making some decisions between turning in the paper late, calling in sick to work or skipping class. These decisions would not have to have been considered if labs were open 24 hours, or at least until midnight, regularly.

It is bad enough that the students get kicked out of the computer lab at 10 p.m., but why the library? This means they cannot get peace and quiet, no research will be completed and they will not have the chance to type up their papers in the computer lab. Sure, the student should not have put off everything until the last minute, but it is very common with the busy schedules most people have and this same scenario will happen sometime in their lives. So, the common solution would be to use the computers in the library to type up the paper as they do the research at the same time. Well, that is just the problem. There are computers in the library, but they are not available for use by the students because of the lack of work study students.

This should not be the case. Tuition pays partly for such facilities to be used not just to be admired that we have them. What is the point of adding another computer lab? What is the point of renovating the library? It is nice that we are privileged to have more than one computer lab at the University and we have a nice-looking library, but it would be even better if we had the chance to take advantage of the facilities. Either the University does something about this issue, or students will just have to scrape the money that is left after paying tuition to invest in a laptop or personal computer.

Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Campus Times Editorial Board.

Stephanie Lesniak

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Campus events for the week of May 22, 2015.