The Main Library is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to midnight on Sunday, but the committee would like to see a change to being open from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to midnight Sunday. Committee members feel more students reserve Sundays for all-day studying, committee chairman Evan Martinak said.

ASMSU is MSU’s undergraduate student government.

The committee has not passed a bill yet, but Martinak said there is a consensus in the committee about the proposal.

“One of the problems we faced is we’ve been explicitly told that, in the past, ASMSU has tried to change library hours but has been emphatically shut down by administrators,” Martinak said.

Clifford Haka, director of libraries, said his staff “certainly” would consider such a proposal if it were to come forward. The library’s budget has faced substantial reductions during the past two years, forcing the library to alter weekend hours, Haka said.

“We’ve tried to reduce hours where we feel there will be the least impact,” Haka said. “We’ve done head counts while the library’s open to see when fewest people were there.”
Haka said the library sees a fair amount of community use on Saturdays with people from cities outside of East Lansing coming to do research or check out resources, so he would be reluctant to reduce hours further.

Library staff would not be opposed to opening earlier on Sunday because they were open longer for many years, Haka said.

“We could certainly consider restoring those hours, particularly if and when the library budget gets back closer to where it was before,” Haka said. “It’s a tight-budget situation.”
Psychology sophomore Nathan Haynes said he wouldn’t mind seeing a change in the library’s weekend hours.

“I don’t know about Sunday, but on Saturday it sucks that they close at 6 p.m.,” Haynes said. “But the librarians have to get time off, too.”

Other Big Ten universities have a range of weekend library hours. Northwestern University’s Main Library is open from 8:30 a.m. to 11:45 p.m. Saturday and 10-3 a.m. Sunday. University of Illinois’ Main Library is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 1-11 p.m. Sunday.

Martinak said the committee is aware of the library’s budget restraints, which is why they considered moving the hours from day to day instead of adding more.

“If we shifted hours, it wouldn’t necessarily cost money,” Martinak said.

Council of Graduate Students President Stefan Fletcher said he would like any changes in library hours to be a data-driven decision.

“If a survey showed this is something the students are supportive of, then COGS would be very willing to work with ASMSU to get that change done,” Fletcher said.