Zach Logan, Staff Writer

Last spring a survey showed that a large number of Armstrong students were asking for more time in the Learning Commons, a technology-rich study space designed for the Armstrong student body.

Armstrong’s Student Government Association also saw the growing number of requests for longer hours at the place where students and staff meet to study, use different resources, and interact.

As a result, the Learning Commons staff is currently looking to extend the hours of operation sometime this semester. ASU Librarian, Doug Frazier said, “We are in the final stages of hiring someone for a new full-time position. The additional staff time will allow us to extend our night hours and to add some hours elsewhere.”

Last year’s survey also showed that students were in favor of the Learning Commons opening earlier rather than closing later.

Students like Kyle Hutchins, a Junior Cellular and Molecular Biology Major, who prefers visiting the Learning Commons in the morning for additional study time.

“Staying up for a test I have in the morning doesn’t seem to give me any sort of advantage.” Hutchins said, “but being able to get into the Learning Commons a little bit earlier and get some studying done before some of my classes might actually have some benefit.”

In Fall of 2014, the Learning Commons changed the opening from 10:30am to 8:30 a.m. However, they moved the closing time from 2:00am to 12 a.m.

“We were reluctant to move the closing time back, but we were working with a fixed number of staff hours, and students really wanted us to open earlier,” Frazier said.

The staff moved the times, but did not extend the total hours of operation. The Learning Commons was still and continues to operate at a total of fifteen and a half hours a day, Monday through Thursday. The Learning Commons has different hours on the weekend, Friday through Sunday.

Once the university fulfills that full-time position, they will be able to permanently add on more hours.

This will be a first for the Learning Commons since it opened in May of 2013. When the position is filled, the Learning Commons will stay open Monday through Thursday until at least 2:00am. That would give the Armstrong body over seventeen hours to use the Learning Commons in just one day. Hutchins supports the added time. “I think it would be an overall, good change for the campus.”

Additional hours may be added elsewhere, but the staff is still contemplating on where to add them, Frazier says, “We have not settled on a final schedule, but we will be open more hours than we are currently and more than we were last year.”

(*Editor’s Note: The Learning Commons will now open at 12 p.m. instead of 2 p.m. on Sundays.)