VIU Students’ Union starts campaign to bring back 24-7 library hours
The change from the 24-7 hours first came on May 2024 during the early days of the VIU Palestine Solidarity Encampment that stood outside of the VIU Library. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm
In prior years, Vancouver Island University students could access the library 24-7, but in the last year, this has changed to reduced hours, leaving many students annoyed.
The reduced hours for the campus library are 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. until 11 p.m. on weekends and holidays.
Advocating for a return to 24-7 access, the VIU Student’s Union (VIUSU) has started a campaign calling on the university to bring back the original hours.
Brandi Klee is a women and gender studies and political science student at VIU. Along with her studies, she is also the Director of External Relations for the students’ union.
Klee said this new campaign comes as students feel the university administration made changes to the library hours without letting students have a say.
As a student who started attending VIU in 2020, Klee had been around when the library was still open 24-7.
“I had gone there at midnight, and I've come in at as early as 4 a.m. So personally, these cuts have made it so that I don't have a safe space to study in the morning or in the evening time as well,” Klee said. “It was an amazing place to be able to go–a casual space to go and study with friends in a low-barrier, safe space.”
It was a normal routine for Klee to get to campus as early as 4 a.m. to study at the library before class, but she said due to the lack of communication about the change in library hours, this past September, Klee had shown up to the library early in the morning to only find out they couldn't get in.
“I had come there at 6 a.m., and I was stopped by security and was not allowed to go into the library,” Klee said. “So I had to wait in my car because I did not know that this change had occurred and that my card was no longer able to access the space in itself.”
While Klee said they are not the type to pull all-nighters at the library, she has heard from students who are missing the opportunity of doing late-night studying at the library.
In response, VIUSU started an open online letter writing campaign to VIU's President & VP Students demanding the reinstatement of 24-7 library hours. Students can sign on to the letter, and so far, over 1,000 have done so.
CHLY spoke to VIU students about their thoughts on the current library hours.
“I have a desk at home. It doesn't really impact me that much, except for if I need to get to school early, because I do wake up pretty early sometimes, and I feel like it would be nice to go into school early and get some homework done. 7 a.m. is pretty late for an opening,” said one student.
“I see how that would affect someone who is living on campus, especially new students. [On-campus student housing] is not like the most quiet place, and also it's just like a very tiny space, and sometimes it's shared, so it's not a very good study environment,” said another student. “So if you're living on campus and you need somewhere to study, the library is a good option. But if it's not open 24-7, then that's not accessible.”
One student told CHLY they were unsure why the hours had even changed, saying they didn’t understand why safety was a reason given for the change in hours.
The change from the 24-7 hours came on May 4, 2024 during the early days of the VIU Palestine Solidarity Encampment that stood outside of the VIU Library.
VIU made the decision to change the 24-7 access to the reduced hours, limiting access to the library to only those with student ID from 9 a.m. until midnight. VIU posted on social media saying that while the encampment remained peaceful and calm, for safety reasons, building entrances would remain locked throughout the day and be accessible only by VIU-issued access card.
Following the end of the encampment in early August, the university had changed the hours of the library but only extended them to the current hours.
According to a survey done in 2023 about the VIU library, VIU students, faculty, and staff were asked to indicate their level of agreement with certain statements. One statement said, “the library feels safe.” Participants were asked to rank that statement from strongly agree to strongly disagree.
According to the raw data from the survey reviewed by CHLY, out of the 1,304 participants who responded to that question, 914, or 70 per cent indicated that they strongly agreed that the library feels safe. Another 291, or 22 per cent, stated that they somewhat agree with the statement.
In the survey, only 20 people or 1.5 per cent of participants, indicated that they somewhat disagree or strongly disagree with the statement that the library feels safe.
CHLY reached out to VIU for comment and was returned an email that VIU sent out to all students from Michael S. Quinn, Provost and VP of Academic, and Carolyn Russell, VP of Students.
The email announced that they would be extending the library hours this year during exam week from March 31 to April 25. The hours would be extended from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m., seven days a week, with key card access required after 5 p.m. on weekdays and weekends and during campus closures.
The email also said that while the 24-7 access is not currently feasible as they operate in a “resource-constrained environment,” the “extended hours reflect our commitment to supporting your academic journey and align or exceed those of many other post-secondary institutions across the province.”
VIU said that they are “continuing to review measures that we may be able to put in place to further extend library hours while ensuring the safety of our community.”
More information about the VIUSU campaign and where to sign on to the open letter can be found at wematterhere.viusu.ca.
Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.