University Council wants to extend opening hours of Polak during evenings and weekends

The University Council wants campus opening hours to be expanded again. On Tuesday, the council asked the Executive Board to temporarily reopen the Polak building in the evenings and at weekends. It also asked if the Sanders building could be open for longer for staff.

The University Council proposes that the Polak building remain open until 10.30pm on weekdays. At weekends Polak would then be open from 9am to 11pm. The council also wants the Sanders building to be open until 10.30pm from Monday to Saturday.

Since last summer the Polak building and the Sanders building have closed at 7.30pm every day and have been closed all day at weekends. Opening hours for campus buildings were limited to increase safety on campus. According to the university there had been ‘troubling incidents‘ on Woudestein campus more and more often, partly caused by groups of young people from outside the university and homeless people.

The proposal for a pilot to reopen a number of buildings in the evenings and at weekends was submitted by student parties Erasmus Student Coalition and OUR Erasmus. According to Mohamed Khalil of the Student Coalition, who spoke for the council on this subject, the University Council received many requests from students to keep buildings open for longer.

‘Happy with the pilot’

Students are annoyed by the early closing times, a survey on campus shows. Sara Alemyar, a master’s student in Tax Law, often studied in the Polak building when it was open for longer. Since the evening closure she’s seen the University Library get increasingly crowded, she says. She would therefore welcome the pilot, because it could help spread students out more evenly.

Jacob Hansen, a student of the International Bachelor Economics and Business Economics, also welcomes the pilot. Because the Polak building now closes earlier he often has to change study location in the evening, which he finds impractical. “Realistically speaking, students often study for longer than the current opening hours”, he says.

Kick de Heer, a Business Administration student, especially notices a shortage of study places during exam periods. He would therefore particularly welcome more places being available in those weeks.

More greenery

“Many students find the UB not a pleasant place to study and it’s often very crowded”, Khalil says. “Langeveld and Polak have much more greenery and natural light.” The priority of the proposal is to open Polak at weekends, Khalil says. “The library is often completely full then.”

The council also proposes measuring the occupancy rate of the buildings after the opening hours are expanded. One of the things the council wants to know is whether students prefer Langeveld or Polak. A decision could then be made about which of the two buildings should remain open in the evenings.

Positive

Executive Board chair Annelien Bredenoord said at the council meeting that she hadn’t yet studied the proposal, but that she was positive about it. The Executive Board would ‘have to come up with good arguments’ to decide against it, since policy officers and council members had already prepared the proposal together, she added.