(image credit: Jaelle Matthieu)

The Learning Commons has removed the films on all their study rooms over the summer for safety issues, stu­dent inconvenience, and cer­tain violations.

Previously, the study rooms had films over the win­dows to give those who booked the rooms a bit of privacy. These had been primarily set up as a result of a faculty sen­ate decision to put films up in the classroom windows to combat safety concerns of ac­tive shooter scenarios.

It was believed to be a good idea to put them up in the li­brary too; however, the study rooms are smaller than the classrooms, and being unable to see inside presented some issues over the past semester.

Bill Mayer, the active Dean of Shapiro Library, when asked about alcohol being brought in the rooms, said, “We have re­ported incidents of that. I have an evening supervisor who has documented all the incidents that have happened in the building throughout the year when the film was up… That was the cause for concern ini­tially.”

However, the decision to remove the films came down to the safety and convenience of the students.

Students would book the study rooms at certain times for themselves or groups, and the films presented a clear is­sue of moving from one book­ing to the next.

“I know in a couple in­stances of speaking with stu­dents, they felt unsure whether their time slot was coming up,” said Ed Daniels, the former Dean of the Library.

“Should they knock on the door, should they inter­rupt what’s going on in the room? They couldn’t see, so I think for moving in and out of the rooms during the sched­uled student booking times, it works well to have a clear sight.”

Originally, the building did not have the films in the win­dows, and it operated for about a year and a half with a clear sight in the rooms.

“It really helps library em­ployees monitor activity in the rooms, as well as lets us see how many people are in the library at a time,” said Mary Newton, a Student Assistant at the Learning Commons and a junior at Southern New Hamp­shire University (SNHU).

“Overall, it’s much better that they’re gone since it al­lows the library to function more smoothly.”

According to Mayer, stu­dents would sometimes book the study rooms for video in­terviews and would get inter­rupted since other students or library faculty couldn’t see what was going on in the room. Because of this, they may look into getting a specific room to host interviews.

“I’m game for what works for the students to have an en­vironment that they feel com­fortable and are safe in on a daily basis,” said Mayer.

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