Roommates of students who stay up till sunrise doing homework can sigh in relief as the Downtown campus opens its first 24/7 study area in the Walter Cronkite building.
The Student Resource Center, on the second floor of the Cronkite building and often called by students as the Cronkite Library, will be the first study location on the Downtown campus open 24/7 throughout the year, according to an email sent to students Saturday by Christopher Callahan, vice provost of the Downtown campus and dean of the Walter Cronkite School.
“At the suggestion of some of your student colleagues, we are now making available to all of our DPC students a university room where you can work no matter day or time,” Callahan wrote in the announcement email.
According to the email, students will be able to access the room by swiping their Sun Cards to enter the Cronkite building, signing in at the security desk and swiping their Sun Cards again at the Student Resource Center. This process is only required outside the normal operating hours of the Cronkite building, which are 7 a.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and noon to 9 p.m. on weekends.
The computers in the Student Resource Center have newly adopted Adobe programs, including Premiere Pro for video editing and Audition for audio editing. This will allow students to work on technology-heavy assignments and projects outside class or during regular lab times.
Journalism sophomore James White said constant access to the Student Resource Center will help Cronkite students.
“I think it’s a really good thing that they’ve done,” White said. “There’s a lot of times in the Cronkite School when you’ll be working on a deadline and you need the technology available in Cronkite to get your project done.”
In addition to the Student Resource Center, the First Amendment Forum will also be open to students 24/7, according to the email.
The rest of the building will be closed and IT staff will be unavailable during the off hours, according to Callahan’s email.
ASU Police Sgt. John Thompson said the changes will not affect police operations in the Cronkite building.
“We have a police aide who sits here 24/7, 365 days a year,” Thompson said. “It doesn’t change any business for us whatsoever.”
Thompson said students can expect to see a security presence at the entrance of the building and throughout the floors during patrols.
Exercise and wellness sophomores Daniel Hernandez and Chudi Ikobi said they were interested in having an all-night study space.
“I’ll try it out,” Hernandez said. “If it’s open 24/7, that’s crazy.”
Ikobi said that during last year’s finals, he and Hernandez studied in the Downtown campus library in the basement of the University Center.
“We didn’t really use the whole library, just the study-section part,” Ikobi said.
Hernandez said it would be nice to have an additional study space that was quiet and separate from Taylor Place.
Contact the reporter at travis.arbon@asu.edu
