STAR-BULLETIN / MARCH 2005
Hamilton Library on the University of Hawaii-Manoa campus will now be open 24 hours a day. Here, Long Trinh re-shelves books at the library.
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UH library to be open around the clock
The new hours were identified as a major priority for students
No matter what time it is, University of Hawaii students will have a place to study when Hamilton Library opens 24 hours a day during the school week.
UH-Manoa is hoping to start the new schedule in November, spokesman Jim Manke said. Under the proposal, Hamilton will open on Sunday and will not close again until Friday evening.
Keeping the library open was the No. 1 priority for students, said Grant Teichman, president of the undergraduate student association at UH-Manoa.
He said more students wrote letters supporting the library hours over fixing dorms and classrooms and adding more advisers.
More than 1,000 students submitted testimony to the Legislature asking for the funding to hire additional security guards and pay for other costs to keep the library open past its current hours, Teichman said.
But he said lawmakers only provided about half of the requested $101,408. The rest had to come out of student tuition money.
Manke said the administration recognized that a 24-hour library was a top student priority and will spend the tuition money to keep the library open.
Teichman said students have no other place on campus to study late at night.
"Some universities on the mainland have two libraries and a food court open 24 hours," Teichman said.
He said plans to keep Hamilton open 24 hours were set back because of the Manoa floods in 2004.
The university will be keeping track of how many students use the library, Teichman said. If the extended hours are a success, he said students will likely lobby the Legislature again in January for more funds to keep Hamilton open next year.