By completing simple forms and suggesting helpful feedback, students have had the power to pitch ideas to remodel two of Texas A&M’s library buildings.
Major enhancements to the second floor of Evans Library and the fourth floor of the Annex are set to be completed by mid-December. These renovations will include eight to 10 person study rooms at Evans, the expansion of the University Writing Center and the addition of a one-touch multimedia studio in the Annex.
With close to nine years of planning, Pixey Mosley, associate dean for Administrative and Faculty Services, said all of the construction was driven by the results of student surveys.
“It’s an outgoing challenge trying to accommodate almost 70,000 students,” Mosley said. “Some people want quiet study areas. Some people want group study areas. Everyone wants power. We know that. But we are making progress on it and we continue to try and refine our study spaces, so it’s an outgoing process that we go through to see what the needs are.”
According to Mosley, Texas A&M Libraries release a survey every two to three years to examine the student needs. Athough they do not release a formal library survey every year, the Idea Box, an online suggestion survey, is always open for fresh ideas to consider in the future. Mosley said in her 20 years at A&M she has seen the surveys bring numerous changes.
“We still had a card catalog when I was an undergrad here,” Mosley said. “Technology would have been nice to have, but it just wasn’t part of the framework then. [Evan’s Library] was built in 1979, so that predated all of the technology, so we are having to retrofit the building as we can for these technology needs.”
With the current library construction project coming to a close, Mosley said they are also looking at options for the fifth and sixth floors of the Annex.
“We put a lot of displaced furniture from the fourth floor and the second floor on those floors,” Mosley said. “We tried to put it out there in an organized fashion, but that isn’t final. Do we need to designate some of it to be quiet study area because we have all of this extensive other study area.”
Interdisciplinary studies sophomore Jasmine Jolivette said she is surprised to hear the student body influenced the current library construction project.
“I didn’t even know that we had an idea box,” Jolivette said. “I just thought they were coming up with different ways to spend our tuition. I mean, there are a lot of things they can add. Hopefully, comfy chairs are on that list and it would be cool if they already provided dry erase markers in some of the study rooms.”
While Jolivette suggested more accessibility to study supplies, psychology freshman ALarria Webb said having a place to buy food would fuel procrastinators pushing through late night studying at Evans and the Annex.
“A lot of students stay at the library pretty late, so I’m hoping maybe the library could see how we could get Chick-Fil-A over here or something,” Webb said. “Not everyone lives on campus and sometimes making your way to the library can be a hassle. I’ll probably put that in the box.”