The Office of the Vice Chancellor and Dean for Academic and Student Affairs has announced an extension in Park Shops access hours for NC State students. This comes as part of a project to make classroom buildings more accessible for students after traditional work hours. This recent change came into effect on Monday and will last through the exam period.
Before the change, accessing Park Shops after traditional work hours was not permitted to individuals without card access. However, during the current period of final exams, hours of operation will be from 7 a.m. to midnight Monday through Friday and noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, allowing students to utilize the facility later than before.
According to Colin Beamer, former Student Government chief of staff and a senior studying political science, the Chancellor’s Liaison Committee, which is housed within Student Government, helped in starting this initiative. The issue was first brought up at a Chancellor’s Liaison meeting on Nov. 7, with the initial timeline being set to allow access to some academic buildings by the spring semester.
“We were asking administration about the reality of utilizing spaces that already exist, so that we don’t have to overcrowd the library around exam time,” Beamer said. “We compromised to the point of where we found a building, Park Shops was that example right now, that was a good central hub.”
Beamer also said that he feels the building will be suitable in preventing overcrowding and providing a good, safe environment for students to study.
“There [are] places that you can block off to prevent students from going to places they shouldn’t go,” Beamer said. “There’s ample places to sit and study, and [Park Shops] is really a conducive environment.”
As for the upcoming summer and fall semesters, the Office of the Vice Chancellor and Dean of Academic and Student Affairs will evaluate the need for extra access hours, and organize the schedule accordingly, according to Justine Hollingshead, chief of staff for the vice chancellor and dean of DASA.
In an announcement email, Hollingshead said Park Shops, the first classroom building to have extended hours of operation so far, will provide students with additional space to study and meet on campus in places other than the library and student centers.
At the time of writing, Hollingshead was unable to name other classroom buildings that will be included in the project, as the conversations regarding extending the hours of more buildings are still developing, and DASA will continue discussing it over the summer.
Student Body President Jackie Gonzalez, a junior studying political science, spoke about the future of the project and the possibility of expanding it to include other buildings and the important factors that go into making these decisions.
“I know that opening all the buildings would be very costly to the university,” Gonzalez said. “Then there’s also like a safety [issue] we have to keep in mind. I think they’re trying to gauge what buildings students like to use the most, and see if we can make those available to them.”
According to Gonzalez, the number of students who access the buildings during the extended hours will affect the expansion of the project to other buildings.
Common space in Park Shops can be accessed during the extended hours with card readers by current students, faculty and staff members. Cameras will also be operational during extended hours. Offices and labs will not be generally accessible outside of regular hours.
Beamer added that he hopes the project will be expanded to include a central location where students can go to find the hours of any on-campus buildings, alongside expanding the project to more academic department buildings.
“I’m glad to see this progress,” Beamer said. “And ultimately, I think that everybody would be in favor of utilizing more buildings across campus.”
