Geneseo is regarded as one of the best SUNY schools you could possibly go to. With excellent professors, a beautiful campus and countless opportunities, it is easy to fall in love with the school. However, on Feb. 11, Geneseo students received an email from the Office of the President that announced Milne Library will not be reopening at the beginning of next semester after being cleared of asbestos, but instead will be fully renovated and reopened in the 2024-25 school year.
This announcement feels like the last straw as this semester’s rocky start—which includes the closed library and both unplanned and planned power blackouts—continues. Many of the students on this campus heavily rely on the library and feel as if they have been unfairly affected in the wake of these events, which is why they hope to start more open and honest discussions between the administration and students here at Geneseo.
With hundreds of students visiting the library every day, Milne was an embodiment of the college community. Because of this, students were able to feel an increased connection to both the campus and other students, which has proven to encourage academic engagement, motivation and general enjoyment of courses. Not to mention, learning typically increases with academic rapport, according to the Association of College and Research Libraries.
With the announced long-term closure, many students will be unable to function as they normally would, which could potentially harm their academic and personal progress at Geneseo. According to the current timeline, students in the classes of 2020, ‘21, ‘22 and ‘23 will not have a functioning library for the rest of their time here and the class of 2024 will not have access to a functioning library at all.
During the fall semester I spent almost every single day at the library, finding the calm environment to be most effective for studying. With many of the library services and resources directed toward first-year students to provide a calm, less distracting study space, freshmen are better able to figure out which study habits may work for them.
In Saundra Yancy McGuire’s best-selling book “Teach Yourself how to Learn,” McGuire likens the start of college and students’ study habits to throwing your child in a swimming pool with no previous instruction. McGuire writes, “We throw material at students, many with poor learning skills, and insist that they learn. Some students do figure out how to learn, but many do not.”
With reduced study spaces for students to get work done, it is only natural that many feel deprived of essential resources. The 2015 NSSE Student Engagement Insights Survey found that 77 percent of students often work in the library in order to focus on their schoolwork in a more concentrated environment.
Though the college has made steps in order to ensure that library services and study spaces continue to be provided for students on campus, many students do not feel that the issue has been adequately handled. The study spaces provided are often crowded and chaotic, lacking the basic principles that made the library a productive space to begin with.
Grace Piscani is an English major freshman who spent everyday of their first semester in the library.