Studying by starlight

Published: Thursday, December 10, 1998

Thursday, December 10, 1998

FEATURE: Students looking to pull the famous

'all-nighter' have very few options on campus, but many still find places

to study

24 hours a day for

final exams

By H. Jayne Ahn

Daily Bruin Contributor

With finals approaching, many students try to immerse themselves in a maddening number of hours of studying like they have never done during the quarter. For most students, the dead week before the finals is a brief, but intense and passionate moment in the 10-week school session, when they get into high gear of reviewing and catching up with their classes.

"During 10th and finals week, I study for about six hours spread around the day and sleep less hours than I normally do," said Richard Lau, a fourth-year economics student.

Some students said it's not always easy to find places to study around finals week.

Liz Delshad, who lives in the dorms, goes to the study lounge on her floor to study.

"I don't study in my room because at night, everybody is out in the hallways talking," the second-year microbiology student said.

"But it's hard (to study in the lounge) because there are so many temptations to take study breaks and socialize with floormates," she added.

Some students who commute or live off campus have different concerns.

A number of commuting students, who arrive on campus early to avoid the morning traffic, have requested that the College Library stay open for extended hours so that they have places to go and study in the morning.

"Staying until 2 a.m. at Night Powell, going home and waiting till 8 o'clock to come back is inconvenient, especially if you live off campus," said Yoon-soon Choi, a fifth-year political science student

"Usually there are too many distractions at home and it's kind of hard to keep your mind on studying," she added.

Like Choi, Sandy Sydavoong finds it easier to study at the library than at home.

"It's hard to study in the apartments because there are too many distractions and the library is a good place to go," the third-year sociology student said.

"I like quiet places like the library. It's where everybody studies," she added.

"For some students, it's hard to study at home because of roommates and noises," said Tyler Nguyen, a fifth-year psychology student.

Students also go to restaurants, coffee shops and bookstores to study.

"I go to Barnes and Noble sometimes, but it's pretty crowded there. If you go there late you can't really find a seat," Nguyen said.

Jerry's Famous Deli is the closest restaurant from campus that's open 24 hours. It has an upstairs lounge where many students go to study.

"I welcome the students because we are in the UCLA community. Usually, the upstairs is always for students who are studying," said Sam Abikzer, the general manager of the restaurant.

"More and more students start showing up around finals week, and we have some students who study through the whole night," he added. "It's a much more relaxed atmosphere (here) when it comes to studying."

Choi mentioned there is a small problem with trying to study in the restaurant, however.

"It's pretty nice there but everybody knows about the place, and it's so popular that there is no room," Choi said.

"I have gone to Denny's, but sometimes they give you weird looks, and you don't feel welcome there," she added.

Although Nguyen is studying at home more this quarter, she remembered that in the past, she wished the Reading Room in the College Library was open longer.

What many students may not know is that Night Powell in the College Library, which allows UCLA students to study until 2 a.m., was implemented only recently, when the College Library was reopened after a seismic renovation project.

"We were trying to respond to students' comments at that time, (requesting) access to study space a little bit longer than in the past, when the library was closed," said Janice Koyama, the head of the public service at the Charles Young Research Library.

The renovation project refurnished study tables and carrels, and brought group-study rooms in the Reading Room.

When it first opened, the Reading Room was open until 3 a.m. as part of an experiment to determine the usage of the study space throughout the different hours of the day.

"We saw that the number of students using the (library) space dropped in the last hour (from 2 to 3 a.m.)," said Eleanor Mitchell, the head of the College Library.

Currently, College Library is the only library on campus that offers a study space after the regular library service is closed.

Study spaces on campus that are open 24 hours is a feature many college campuses have, especially around finals week, if not all year round.

For example, UC Irvine has a study center that is open 24 hours during 10th and finals week.

"We are offering our students a place on campus that is conducive to studying. It is convenient for them because there aren't that many places to study," said Jack Toan, a manager at the Reserves Study Center at UC Irvine.

"I would like to see the Reading Room open 24 hours during 10th and finals week because I could have a lot more productive time studying at the library rather than going home and trying to study," Choi said.

Sydavoong also wishes the study place in the College Library were open 24 hours around finals week.

Leavey Library at USC is open 24 hours on weekdays all throughout the year. After 10 p.m., users need to show USC student IDs to go in.

"We simply don't have resources to have any of our libraries open 24 hours year round," Koyama said.

Mitchell said she hasn't received any requests to have the Reading Room open 24 hours around finals week.

In addition, she said that there have been more student requests for opening the College Library earlier than 8 a.m. than for extending the hours past 2 a.m.

In addition to opening up its study center for 24 hours around finals week, UC Irvine has a 24-hour student center featuring a cafe, study lounge, and video arcade during 10th and finals week.

"It would be good to have a lounge somewhere in Ackerman or somewhere (on campus) that could be open all night long," Choi said.

"You want some places to go when you have midterms, papers or finals. And food and drinks are natural courses of studying."

Ackerman Student Union has extended hours for access during finals week, but there is a low usage of the space, according to an event coordinator at USAC.

"I went into a faculty lounge today and it looked like an elk's lodge. I don't see why they can't spend a little money to have like a library open 24 hours, especially if this is an academic institution,"said Sean Kuk, a fourth-year Asian American studies and history student.

Koyama said implementing an extension of libraries' hours would require looking into issues such as security, cost and usage or the actual number of users during the hours.

"We try to be flexible and want our schedule of hours to meet user needs as much as possible given our resources," Koyama said.

"As a student, it would be nice to have some place to go to study late at night and not to worry about whether or not you are welcome and whether or not you have to buy anything," Choi said.MARY CIECEK

(Left to right) Se-Mi Oh, David Kim and Jason Lee usually study for finals and midterms at Jerry's Famous Deli where they can eat, talk and stay as late as they want.

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