Overnight library hours at UTA’s main library are being eliminated, prompting students to raise concerns about the change.
University of Texas at Arlington officials announced the reduction of hours at the school’s main Central Library Aug. 5. A day after, UTA student Justin Pacheco started a petition, “Keep UTA library open 24/7,” and by Aug. 8 more than 1,000 people signed. As of Aug. 16, the petition has collected more than 1,500 signatures.
“Nobody expected it,” Pacheco said, talking about the reduction in hours.
Pacheco, a sophomore at UTA who started the online petition, works to pay his tuition, and the overnight library hours were something he used often.
“It was cool to see that I’m not the only one who thinks this is a bad idea,” he said.
For more than the past decade, not counting semesters affected by COVID-19, UTA’s Central Library has been open 24 hours on weekdays. Weekends also moved to a 24-hour schedule in fall 2017.
The school’s decision reduces open hours to 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to midnight on the weekends. Other popular study spots on campus — the Commons and the University Center — close every day at 10 p.m.
John Wang, the dean of UTA Libraries, said staff pored over usage data and strategized the best ways to maximize library resources when they made their decision to reduce hours.
“We did not take this lightly. We thoroughly analyzed post-pandemic library entry and usage data from recent years,” said Wang, who came to UTA in 2023. “We also gathered insights from our frontline staff regarding their experiences and observations of overnight user traffic and usage.”
The decision will not affect the wages of library staff and students, Wang said. University officials are searching for sites on campus where students can study overnight and exploring the possibility of extending library hours during finals.
There was a “substantial decrease in usage traffic, from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m,” Wang said. Library usage data from January 2021 to October 2023 shared with the Report supports the claim.
The month of September, both in 2022 and 2023, had the highest numbers of visitors of any month within the shared data. The hours between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. recorded the lowest numbers of people coming into the library for both months.
In September 2022, 68 people swiped in at 4 a.m., while at noon, there were 13,759 entries, the highest number of entries that month. The average number of visitors per hour from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m. was nearly 35 times less than the average entries per hour at all hours that month.
The 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. time frame had the lowest library usage in nearly every month between January 2021 and October 2023.
UTA officials did not respond to questions about whether students were consulted prior to the decision. The elimination of overnight hours was news to UTA student body President Deon Rodrigues, who found out about the change through the university’s Aug. 5 announcement. He is working to understand the reasons for reduced hours and is “committed to advocating for the needs of our student community.”
“As a student, I have also spent late nights in the library, along with countless other friends and students. I recognize this is an important issue to many in our UTA community,” Rodrigues said in a statement.
It’s a sentiment echoed by UTA students on the university Reddit page. Many students work during the day, while others have roommates. The library is “too packed during the day,” one wrote. The extended hours is a space “to clear my head and be productive at the same time.” One UTA alum recalled a time in the library, when they were “writing a mortuary analysis and falling in love with archaeology, all at 2 in the morning.” Students want better and more options rather than “taking away the only spot students had to study late,” wrote one Reddit user.
Their overnight options near campus are slim. There is a McDonald’s on West Abram Street and a Jack in the Box on West Division Street that are open 24 hours.
The reduction of library hours is part of a national trend, according to Leo Lo, the president of the Association of College and Research Libraries.
“It’s become much rarer,” Lo said, speaking about university libraries remaining open at all hours, especially at a commuter campus like UTA, where Lo earned his bachelor’s degree.
“Library budgets have not increased — or have flatlined through the years — so there are only certain things we can do to make sure that we can still provide the really essential services, like collections, rights and acquisitions, and buying the resources people need,” he said.
Other university libraries in North Texas are open around the clock. The main libraries at the University of Texas at Dallas and Texas Christian University are open 24 hours Monday through Thursday. The main library at the University of North Texas is open 24 hours throughout the week.
In an FAQ about the new library hours, UTA officials said they made the changes to “optimize resources, enhance research support and ensure cleaner, safer facilities.”
UTA’s library system will soon offer new tools to students and faculty, said Wang. Research Mavs will have librarian-trained researchers assist people in finding resources, and MavMatrix will serve as an online digital platform for students and faculty to publish their work.
But Pacheco, and other students like him, will have to make adjustments. The overnight hours offered him a place where he could spend a concentrated amount of time studying before going to classes or heading to work in the morning. During those late hours — around 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. — he found a community of other students working on the same assignments.
Pacheco doesn’t anticipate the library will revert back to its original overnight schedule. The fall semester starts Aug. 19.
However, given the amount of voices that expressed frustration with the decision, he hopes the university will work with students on a path forward.
“I just hope the officials understand our positions, listen to everybody’s stories and see what changes need to be made,” he said.
Ismael M. Belkoura is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at ismael.belkoura@fortworthreport.org.
Shomial Ahmad is a higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report, in partnership with Open Campus. Contact her at shomial.ahmad@fortworthreport.org.
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This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.