With all the high school students who are preparing for their final exams and university students who feel the exam pressure breathing down their necks, it is extremely busy in the university library. Student party asap wants to solve this problem by installing gates at the entrance.

Little is so frustrating as having to cycle back home because of a shortage of workplaces in the university library. Recently, it was so busy that the doorman had to throw himself in front of the door: it really was impossible to fit anyone else in.

Sports centre

In the past, several measures have bene taken to unburden the library in crowded periods. Since last February, computers which are not used for 45 minutes by students who take a break, are released for other users. But the problems are not solved with that.

Student faction asap expects that the pressure on the library will increase during peak hours, now that the schedules of the several faculties will be synchronised. In a new proposal, for which asap searched for inspiration in the practices in Amsterdam, Groningen, Leiden and Utrecht, the student faction now drops the bombshell itself.

Asap wants to install gates at the library’s entrance, initially to monitor how many students enter it. At the moment, you can already see online how many computers are available, but not how many free study places there are. The gates, that are already in use at the sports centre, should solve this problem. Down the line, during peak hours, the gates could be closed for students who are not enrolled at Radboud University. The library is very popular amongst students of the HAN university of applied sciences and high school students.

‘Outside peak hours, we think everybody should be welcome, the openness of the library is very important to us’, says Jafar Alhashime of asap. ‘Still, we think that the library should meet the university’s needs above that of others.’

Line of approach

Asap’s proposal, which is not endorsed by the whole student council, was discussed during the preparation of Radboud’s general meeting yesterday. The works council was questioning the feasibility of this plan: they feared high work pressure for the library’s employees.

Nevertheless, Alhashime is happy with the work council’s input. ‘Together with them, we can work out our plan. Next week, the memo is discussed during the university’s general meeting.’

‘First of all, we want to offer a line of approach for the executive board’, says Jafar. ‘But if they want to solve the problem in a different way, we can also agree with that.’