IN OTHER NEWS:
A national tragedy hits home for some students

Interview with the prez...

Controversial Liz Phair concert forces apology

Calvin grad debut new film

Speakers to address racism issue

Network problems create delays

For all those students looking for a quiet place to study on Sundays, one is now being provided.

Every Sunday from 1:00 - 6:00 p.m. for the next four weeks, Johnnys and the Cave (the Fish House) will be open to students seeking a place to study, although the food services themselves will not be open. The first-floor ITC computer lab will also be open at the same time for these four weeks.

Henry DeVries, vice president for information services, said that the hours were introduced in order to “try to facilitate services to students in terms of the end-of-semester crunch.” The Johnnys-Fish House area will be designated a “quiet study facility” and, said DeVries, are being opened because “the dorms get crazy with open house and you can’t really concentrate.”

The initial push for quiet Sunday study areas was made by Student Senate, who sent a letter to President Gaylen Byker requesting that the library be open on Sunday.

According to DeVries, “opening the library [on Sunday] is not feasible” for several reasons. First, the library is a partial Government Document Repository, meaning that it receives and stores copies of government legislation and publications. As a Document Repository, it is required to have librarians working whenever the library is open.

Second, it would force staff to work who have chosen not to work on Sunday.

Third, the library services both the College and the seminary, and the seminary has opposed any move toward opening the library on Sunday.

These reasons were discussed at an all-day meeting of the President’s Cabinet held last Tuesday, said DeVries. Various options were discussed, and several criteria were developed. What was needed was a central location, a place where students could spread out and work and a place with good visibility so that security was not an issue. “It seemed like Johnnys was the best choice,” said DeVries.

Student Senate President Jeremy Konyndyk was happy with the new hours, but expressed some concerns about the location.

“I think it’s good – students get on our case every year about having a quiet place to study on Sunday,” he said.

But he called to mind a time “five-ish years ago when they tried the same thing with a dining hall and no one really went.

“I wonder if the same is going to happen here,” he questioned. “There’s a different aura in the food areas than in the library – the library has a quiet aura for studying, but the food areas have more of a social atmosphere.”

Assistant Dean of Residence Life John Witte agreed that “it’s a great idea” but had some hesitations over the security at the Fish House. “I hope that people realize that they shouldn’t mess around with it,” he said. Witte noted that the Fish House was open at the beginning of the year, but was closed after it was broken in to.

Director of Campus Safety Gerry Steele said that the perpetrators in the previous break-in had been caught, and that security with the Fish House should not be a problem. During the open hours on Sundays, Campus Safety will be doing “what we do for all open events – walking through and checking it out,” said Steele.

Vice President for Administration and Finance Jim Kraai noted that “this is a trial basis and we’re going to observe it and evaluate it. We’ll work with Student Senate to see if this helps meet a need.” Kraai also admitted to some concerns over the effectiveness of the hours. “I think it will be somewhat effective, but not completely. There’s a number of issues that may come up.” For example, he said, “the space may end up being used socially rather than scholastically, which would defeat the purpose of providing a place outside the dorm.”

Kraai also said that there was a good possibility that this four week trial be made into an all-year affair: “I think this is just a trial time period because we only have this many weeks left. We’d probably try it for a longer period of time if we had gotten the request earlier.”