Joseph Vasquez / The Collegian

Junior Ortega sits in an uncomfortable chair in the University Student Union, focused on his botany book, study notes sprawled out in his lap and on a small end-table.

Students hum all around him. People on laptops, people on cell phones, people eating Panda Express.

“It’s too loud in here,â€Â Ortega says as the murmur of conversations and clusters of gabbing students drown out his thoughts. “I do my homework at public libraries.â€Â

Ortega wouldn̢۪t go off campus if he felt he didn̢۪t have to. For students like him, trips to the public library have become more frequent while the campus library is under construction for at least another year.

The future state-of-the-art Henry Madden Library is a subject Fresno State has boasted about since long before its September 2006 groundbreaking. Its eventual completion will make it the largest library in the CSU̢۪s 23-school system.

But the promise of that dazzling new $95 million facility doesn’t give students what they might need now — an orderly place to study.
Instead, students waiting for its completion get people stepping over them and their notes in hallways, rooms filled with ringing cell phones and idle chatter, people enjoying an afternoon beer while they watch TVs tuned in to ESPN, and the clattering of bowling balls in the student union.

Despite the USU̢۪s official status as an alternative study spot, Ortega disagrees with the designation. (Alternative study areas are the substitutions that campus officials created for students to still get their schoolwork done in the absence of a library.)

“It’s not a study area,â€Â Ortega says of the USU. “It’s more of a gossip area.â€Â

‘There will be plenty of study space’

Some students remember a time when they could study in quiet rooms at the library past 8 p.m. While some wish the old hours would return, statistics hinder the library from staying open later, at least while it̢۪s still under construction.

Peter McDonald, dean of the Madden library, said two factors contributed to the cut hours. McDonald said the library simply didn̢۪t have the resources and staff needed to keep it open later.

When the library used to be open later, McDonald said, the daily count of students dropped by one-half every hour after 6 p.m. So if 200 students were at the library at 6 p.m., for example, the number would drop to 100 at 7 p.m. Counters tallied up the number of students, and when the statistics showed a decrease in students, a cost-benefit analysis determined a cut in library hours.

“Statistically, it’s not worth our time,â€Â McDonald said.

But when renovations are completed, McDonald said he plans to increase the hours of operation.

“I’m committed to keeping it open later,â€Â McDonald said of the library.

The renovated library will be host to “individual, group and large group study areas,â€Â McDonald said. A café is also part of the plan for the new facility. This vision of a social atmosphere might leave some students concerned about not having enough quiet study space, but McDonald believes students shouldn’t be concerned.

“There will be at least 1,000 seats that will be designated quiet,â€Â he said.

“There will be plenty of study space, rest assured.â€Â

Searching for substitutions

Technically, students have more room to study right now with the alternative study spots.

The official map of study areas for the 2007-2008 school year can be found on the Henry Madden Library̢۪s official Web site at www.maddenlibrary.org. Every area where students can go to study is listed.

The study spaces consist of both indoor areas and outdoor spots. Three of the study areas are located at the Henry Madden Library on the first three floors.

With these alternate study areas on campus, Fresno State students actually have more room to study on campus than before the library began its renovations, said Sydney Jackson, Fresno State̢۪s facilities planner.

“We were trying to find as many seats as we lost,â€Â Jackson said. “We exceeded that.â€Â

Jackson was in charge of allocating substitute study space throughout the campus for students.

“It wasn’t easy to do,â€Â Jackson said. “Nobody wanted to give it [space] up.â€Â

Jackson said the biggest study area added for students is UC 200, the room just above Round Table Pizza. Students now have “full controlâ€Â of the room, once used frequently by the Academic Senate and other faculty. She said UC 200 was “spruced upâ€Â as a study area, which can hold about 140 students and has new furniture and boosted Wi-Fi Internet access.

Students may not have access to power outlets when studying in the outdoor study spots. However, Jackson said Internet access is available for outdoor study areas, such as the quad in between the Psychological/ Human Services, McKee Fisk, Social Science and Family and Food Sciences buildings, and the courtyard outside of the Agricultural Sciences building.

Tolerating the noise

Some students may be surprised to find one campus hotspot missing from the map — The Bucket, formerly known as The Pub.

Once a place where students could grab a cup of coffee in between classes and study for a couple of hours, The Bucket has been transformed into a sports bar. But Jackson said students should not consider The Bucket as an alternate place to study.

“Students study where they can tolerate the noise,â€Â Jackson said.

Order numbers are shouted across the pub. A local radio station plays in the background. ESPN is shown on TVs hanging from the walls.

“I study better with background noise,â€Â said Kim Hendricks, a senior nursing major who sometimes puts on headphones while studying at The Bucket.

Not having a library on campus doesn’t affect Hendricks. She said she studies at the pub about four days a week, and with the exception of using the library’s Web site to access services such as E-Reserves, she said, “I never used it anyway.â€Â

Hendricks believes the alternate study areas are an adequate substitution for the library̢۪s lack of study space.

“I think it’s good enough,â€Â she said.

In a hallway across campus, Virk Gurmeet reads in the Science II building. A particularly loud cell phone goes off.

The ringing is coming from just a few feet away, in an office just across the hallway. A woman eventually picks up the phone, and Gurmeet can hear the conversation just as clearly as the polyphonic ringtone.

Gurmeet is sitting on a couch in the hallway — one of the university’s designated alternate study areas.

Gurmeet, a computer science graduate student who spent most of his undergraduate time at Fresno State studying at the library, said it’s “very badâ€Â that the library’s renovations leave students without quiet places to study.

Although construction of the Henry Madden Library can be seen — and heard — daily by students, university officials sing the praises of the finished product, their vision of what the library has to offer upon its completion next year.

“The new Madden Library will be the centerpiece of this campus, a landmark that will forever symbolize the primacy of scholarship and research at Fresno State,â€Â University President John D. Welty said in his spring 2005 address.

Gurmeet suggested that university officials allow students to study in quiet, empty classrooms until the library is complete. But while Fresno State prides itself on its soon-to-be symbol of academia, Gurmeet said he gets his work done at the USU, despite his inability to focus with all of the clamor.

“It’s very hard to concentrate over there,â€Â Gurmeet said of the union in the morning. “After 9 o’clock, you can’t study.â€Â