Boarding at Butler

Before long, Columbia students will once again undergo the familiar ritual of midterms—and the perennial problem of finding a decent place to work. Butler Library affords few open seats during the prime study weeks in the middle and end of each semester. The space crunch is exacerbated by students’ tendency to claim desks for hours at a time, even after they have left the library. The administration should open up additional study rooms and enforce its current no-camping policy to alleviate the shortage of available study space. Students, in turn, should be more considerate towards their peers by removing their belongings when they leave.

While the building itself is open 24 hours a day, many of Butler’s rooms are closed by 11:00 p.m., even though the library staff occasionally opens these rooms to accommodate peak usage. Given that space is often in short supply, students are hard-pressed to locate unoccupied seats. Students who leave their belongings in the library to reserve their spots make matters worse. Although there is a “no camping” policy on the books, that policy is not effectively enforced. The library attributes both room closures and infrequent sweeps to an insufficient number of staff, among other reasons. If that is the case, the University should hire more library staff. The library should be equipped to perform regular sweeps and keep enough rooms open to accommodate students who wish to study there, especially during exam periods. Relatedly, although Butler provides over 100 lockers for students’ use, most of these are reserved for the academic year through a summer lottery. Butler should increase the number of those lockers in circulation on a daily or weekly basis so that students who do not wish to carry their books around can store them innocuously, rather than cluttering up study rooms. To this end, the University could generate an online system similar to the one used for reserving space in Lerner Hall.

The administration should also clarify and adjust its current policy regarding food in Butler. Blue Java Café holds a veritable monopoly over food sales within the library because students are prohibited from openly bringing food inside. The University should allow students to enter Butler with containers of food, provided that they keep to the so-called green zones where eating is permitted. Packaged food from other vendors is no messier than that bought at Blue Java, and students should not be forced to conceal their snacks as they walk through Butler’s entrance.

Ultimately, however, there is only so much the administration can do to make Butler a better study space. Students should be mindful of their peers when deciding what to eat in designated areas—they should clean up after themselves, as well. Moreover, though staking territorial claims in Butler is understandable in light of space constraints, camping itself contributes to the problem. Students should adhere to the no-camping policy, even in the absence of strict enforcement. Where possible, they should avail themselves of less-trafficked libraries and avoid Butler’s busiest hours. Only when students and administrators do their parts to free up space will Butler be able to accommodate all those who wish to study there.