USF Library to Return to 24-Hour Operation After Students Protest Cuts

With belts tightening in departments across campus, the University of South Florida library faced cuts to its hours, which had been 24 hours a day, five days a week. Administrators, though, seemingly underestimated how much USF students counted on the library to play host to all night study sessions. When the reduced hours went into effect on August 26, USF students returned to school to find a library that opened at 7:30 a.m. weekday mornings, only to shutter its doors at midnight. In response, hundreds of students protested the decision with “sit-outs” and letter writing campaigns. Those protests paid off last week, when administration and library officials announced the return of the library’s popular ‘up-all-night’ schedule.