COLUMN TOPICS that are fun to write about usually involve a per-sonal experience. In my case, quite often that column idea must jump in my lap and scream in my face before I can see it. Chances are, I'll still misunderstand what the screaming is all about.
This week's rather loud revelation that I did catch, happened, oddly enough, while peacefully engrossed in one of those big blue reference books with a name that's too long to pronounce, on the fourth floor of the night owl's roost - a.k.a. Clemons Library.
It was 6 p.m. on Friday afternoon, when the man on the library speaker told us to pack up shop. It was closing time.
Now wait just one second, I thought. It was still light out. The library can't close during daylight. What about the test I need to study for? And the paper that's due after the break? What about my uncompleted research with these big books that I can hardly lift?
"You gotta do it someplace else," the man said.
Much to the chagrin of the probably 30 other students on the floor with me, the library closes early during spring break. No kidding, my 24-hour friend was forcing us out into the cold promptly at six o'clock - on normal Friday and Saturday nights, the closing time is midnight. I'd been stabbed in the back. It was a sad day, a sad day indeed.
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Please note that a break isn't much of a break when instructors assign papers and exams due the following week - but that's a separate issue to be tackled at a different time. For now, I'm content just to ask that the libraries be open so that procrastinating students - like me - and studious students - not like me - can do our projects in a peaceful library environment.
The University libraries are more than a mere collection of books or a convenient place to do group work. These libraries grow on the regulars; they become a kind of home. Clemons is my little oasis of peace and quiet. I need it to study. I need the fluorescent lights, those wooden chairs and that library hum if I plan to think a lot. It's sad, I do.
My desk at home gets about as much use as my harmonica, which isn't much. The dust fairies recently built a replica of New York City on that desk. I don't mind because like many students, I live in the library and hey, the cobwebs make a great conversation topic.
To request a 24-hour library during the vacations that most students use to leave town is a bit extreme. But, the libraries need to be open past six o'clock on the last couple days of a break for the students who choose to come back early to get required work finished - or in my case, started.
I like Charlottesville when my loud and rowdy classmates pack up for vacation. It's a very peaceful town. The harmony reminds me of exam week when a quiet hush descends on all University life. The birds seem to stop chirping and even the crickets cricket somewhere else. People walk on their tiptoes and talk in whispers.
The quiet can be very refreshing and extremely relaxing during vacation - provided of course that you don't have to do the research, writing and revising for half a semester's grade. That's when you find yourself searching for a study haven.
Even worse, I've learned, is to get back in town days before anyone sane would even think to arrive and find that your oasis, your sanctuary, your home away from home, closes before dinnertime. I thought my man on the speaker was kidding, but he wasn't.
I understand, and honestly I can appreciate that it costs the University an extra $68,000 per year to keep Clemons Library open 24-hours during the regular session rather than closing at 2 a.m., as was the case in the past.
It costs good money to keep a library open longer, but it's a good expense because students are starting to make use of such a resource. Monday through Thursday last week, Clemons Library was open until 9 p.m. It was only on Friday and Saturday nights that the library closed at six.
I call that poor planning because those are the nights that many returning, homework stressed students probably planned to spend hunkered away in the library. It might seem smart to close early; however, during a break, I'd argue that many students use those last couple nights to study.
And so, as I labored back home Friday afternoon with sad plans to destroy that pinnacle of dust fairy engineering at my desk, I remembered a restricted study haven, unaffected by any break schedule far away at North Grounds. Unfortunately, such sanctum is forbidden to undergraduate students like myself.
Well, it's time to break a rule or two. Law School, here I come. You're open 24/7 and maybe you can be my new best friend.
I hope the librarians aren't checking student IDs up there because I sure can't pretend to be a law student when the books I'm carrying have titles like Three Years in the Army of the Cumberland or Chemistry for Idiots.
Here's hoping.
(Luke Ryan's column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at lryan@cavalierdaily.com.)
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