The Daily OrangeAssembly talks library books, MayFest
By Kathleen Ronayne
Posted: 11/17/09, 3:32 AM EST Section: News
Student Association members and SA President Larry Seivert have been meeting with Vice President and Dean of Student Affairs Thomas Wolfe every Friday morning to discuss the future of MayFest. Members also debated the merits of Syracuse University's plan to ship 100,000 books a year from Bird Library to a storage facility four hours away in Paterson, N.Y.
Seivert gave a brief update on SA's efforts to create a separate day for MayFest dedicated completely to student interests at Monday's meeting in Maxwell Auditorium.
While Seivert declined to give specific information regarding progress on the separate day off, he ensured the assembly that talks are going extremely well.
"Notice we are talking about what could be included in a day for students, not whether there should be one," said Seivert, who added that members of University Union have also been present at some of the meetings.
The assembly also discussed the university's plan to ship books from a near-capacity Bird Library, beginning in spring 2010.
The removal of books would hinder academic growth on campus, said Tyrone Shaw, chair of SA's Academic Affairs Committee. If students need books that have been shipped to the storage facility, they will have to wait at least two days to receive the book after requesting it. This will be detrimental to students who don't realize they need the materials until the day before their assignments are due, he said.
"Regardless of it being last minute planning or not, that is still stifling academic progress on campus. Papers aren't going to be turned in as good as they could be because students don't have access to those academic materials," he said.
The issue is also about more than just the unavailability of books, Shaw said. The removal of books will continue to move the library toward a student study space, rather than a place to house books. Converting the library to a student study space goes against the intended purpose of the library, he said.
Seivert gave a brief update on SA's efforts to create a separate day for MayFest dedicated completely to student interests at Monday's meeting in Maxwell Auditorium.
While Seivert declined to give specific information regarding progress on the separate day off, he ensured the assembly that talks are going extremely well.
"Notice we are talking about what could be included in a day for students, not whether there should be one," said Seivert, who added that members of University Union have also been present at some of the meetings.
The assembly also discussed the university's plan to ship books from a near-capacity Bird Library, beginning in spring 2010.
The removal of books would hinder academic growth on campus, said Tyrone Shaw, chair of SA's Academic Affairs Committee. If students need books that have been shipped to the storage facility, they will have to wait at least two days to receive the book after requesting it. This will be detrimental to students who don't realize they need the materials until the day before their assignments are due, he said.
"Regardless of it being last minute planning or not, that is still stifling academic progress on campus. Papers aren't going to be turned in as good as they could be because students don't have access to those academic materials," he said.
The issue is also about more than just the unavailability of books, Shaw said. The removal of books will continue to move the library toward a student study space, rather than a place to house books. Converting the library to a student study space goes against the intended purpose of the library, he said.
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