Imagine a three-story UW library open 24 hours. Imagine UW students working productively all night on their homework. Now imagine 40,000 rats furiously running in wheels. Somehow our quest for knowledge has transformed into a glorified paper chase, where the runners are sad and the trophies are just letters of the alphabet.
Last fall, our campus opened a 24-hour section of Memorial Library after pressure from Associated Students of Madison. Today, our student government lobbies for the entire transformation of College Library into an operative three-tier, 24-hour, 7-days-a-week-library. ASM wants our university to fund an environment that promotes students to work all night. If our university sponsors an all-night working atmosphere, an issue even larger than a 24-hour library looms: Why do we feel compelled to work all night?
For 155 years, UW-Madison has educated minds without 24-hour libraries. Yet now in 2003, we are under the misconception we need a 24-hour library. Shakespeare didn't have a 24-hour library, Martin Luther King, Jr. didn't have a 24-hour library and Mother Teresa certainly did not have a 24-hour library. Our newfound need for an all-night library reflects a major shift in our overall societal perspective.
A life of balance used to be the goal, but now a rigorous 24-hour work regime seems to be a more popular aspiration in our endless search for happiness. Yet, when students work around the clock, they become depressed. Not surprisingly, depression rates are rising among college students and a 24-hour library may only fuel the downward spiral. A Kansas State University report released in February announced the doubling of college students treated for depression between 1989 and 2001. At UW-Madison, depression is the No. 1 treated mental illness and anxiety disorders come in second. Our university should promote balance. A 24-hour library takes students further away from balance; and may help perpetuate mental illness.
College students not embracing an active stance in today's political arena has been the subject of criticism. Activism has declined, but this shift away from a broader perspective is embedded in our society. The traditional assumption that college kids take more of an interest in themselves than their country reflects the way college kids have been conditioned in society. College students have little time to participate in activities that reach beyond themselves. Our not looking beyond our Madisonian bubble is tragic, but not entirely our fault. Our critics must remember we didn't create this system alone.
UW-Madison and ASM need to consider not just the appropriateness of a 24-hour library, but also the implications. ASM should approach this all-night studying phenomena more directly and focus its efforts toward keeping tuition down. If tuition is down, students don't have to get jobs and consequently do homework all night. And if students still need more late-night library hours, ASM should instead take the estimated $80,000 to keep College Library open 24 hours and use the money towards time management classes for students. This is our university; we must take care not to transform our education into a rat race.
There are members of UW-Madison who would benefit, and do benefit, from a 24-hour library. The student who works the 40-hour workweek to pay for school and the student without a personal computer would benefit. Also, there are always those occasional nights in every college student's life that necessitate an all-nighter. But if this truly were the exception, then the 24-hour section of Memorial Union Library would suffice and we would not need all of College Library to be open 24-hours. Now the question lingers if this exception has become the norm. Contrary to popular belief, we are just mammals. And as mammals, we deserve sleep.
Imagine a three-story UW-library open 24 hours. Imagine UW-students working productively all night on their homework. Now imagine 40,000 rats furiously leaping off their wheels as they give the 24-hour library the finger and stroll home to take a nap. Somehow our quest for happiness transformed into a glorified scavenger hunt, where the students battle scholastic pressure and look for the answers stuck between pages in 24-hour libraries.
