In September of this year, UCD’s Library Services announced the closure of Level 2 of the James Joyce (JJ) building to facilitate renovations. Amid student outrage, another development unfolded this morning: the additional closure of Levels 1, 3, and 4 was announced. After careful deliberation by graduate maths students, who were eager to find any use for their degrees, it was concluded that the closure now amounted to all four levels of JJ.
Students’ response has been overwhelmingly negative, with the library’s Instagram page subject to a level of trolling and death threats usually reserved for successful female pop artists. Despite the disabling of comments under the announcement post, a sense of deep unrest and foreboding lingers behind the cutesy graphic. Concern has been expressed on university pages, as UCD Confessions is left wondering where their thirsty posts will come from in the absence of an open-plan study area. One contributor expressed their disappointment, writing:
“I used to say that I’d lick the laptops of anyone who hogged seats in the JJ library. I’d just submit the same variation of the joke every week. It always went down a treat. I don’t really know what to do now that that’s gone.”
We interviewed students to see what kind of impact this major change was having on the ground. One student revealed their new foolproof tactic:
“I’ve just started walking into the Health Science library and sitting in the laps of the Med students. It usually takes a moment for them to realise, what with the sleep deprivation, and it’s so quiet in there that they can’t really say anything about it.”
In comparison, a 3rd year Science student informed us that they’ve abandoned libraries altogether:
“Yeah, my mates and I have kind of just taken to sitting on the floor outside Moore Auditorium. It’s a cosy enough place, to be honest. We call it Corner. We’ll be like, “Hey! I’m in Corner if anyone’s around”. The back support’s not great, but I think the vibes are pretty good. Sometimes people stand on you a little bit, but they usually apologise after the second or third time. Oh, can you not put this bit in the article though because I kinda want to keep it on the down-low- if someone takes this spot I’m going to have to go to Richview”.
UCD Estates have failed to comment on the timeline for reopening of the campus’s main study space, but expectations among the wider student body are grim. All students with complaints have been asked by university management to send them to annoyingcomplaints@wedontcheckthis.ie.
By: J. Puddleduck