The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

Letter to the Editor: Snell snoozes as students seek study

The skimpy hours of operation at Northeastern University’s Snell Library are irritating students and leaving them vulnerable to relentless sneering from their crosstown rivals.

Boston University, Tufts University and Boston College all keep their libraries open until the early hours of the morning. Their students agree that the long library hours are not only helpful, but necessary. Apparently Northeastern University’s Administration lost the memo.

From Monday to Thursday, Snell Library is open from 7:45 a.m. to midnight; Saturday’s hours are 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday’s hours are 10 a.m. to midnight. The cyber cafe – a small, furnished room with a coffee machine, below the library – remains open 24 hours, from Sunday to Thursday. The cyber cafe is hardly adequate for a small tribe of Shi Tzus, let alone a student body of roughly 15,000 undergraduates.

For Northeastern students like Peter Anderson, a freshman computer science major, the library’s hours have become a frustrating inconvenience that conflict with their already demanding schedules.

“I work part-time after classes, so I don’t get home until late. I really have no time to use the library during the week, when I need it the most,” Anderson said. “This makes it really hard to get my work done because I need a quiet place to work and my dorm is so noisy.”

Northeastern University does offer the cyber cafe to students who wish to study after the library closes, but its miniscule size and blinding pink neon lighting are hardly conducive to learning. Hannah Seo, a sophomore criminal justice major, went so far as to call the cyber cafe “gross.”

“During midterms, a couple of friends and I went to the cyber cafe the night before our test and we were like, ‘This is gross,’ so we left,” Seo said. “The place was so crowded – it was actually packed – and so noisy. I even tried to get a cappuccino before I left, but the machine had run out.”

Students at Tufts University have the luxury of studying until 3 a.m. on the late-night floor of the school’s Tisch Library. The neighboring Tower Caf

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