In the midst of the semester, students have turned to the student-created app Quae, which enables users to create polls for others to vote on and respond to. Polls gauge student interest on a variety of topics, one of them being building hours, introduced by 3/4 Industrial and Systems Engineering student Daniel Wadler. (Correction: Daniel Wadler is a 3/5 Industrial and Systems major, not 3/4.)
Wadler’s post, titled “Should The Library And Other Buildings Be Open Later” was posted two months ago and received a total of 56 votes, of which 55 voted “Yes.” The poll detailed that the current library hours were insufficient, especially for commuter students or those working on group projects. Another question, posted by 3/4 Quantitative Finance student Eden Luvishis, polled students about their opinions on how late academic buildings should stay open. Luvishis’ poll received 47 votes, with the leading choice being “All night.”
Wadler’s motivation for posting the poll came from his own experiences. He told The Stute, “I was working on an assignment with people in Babbio and it was only about 11pm when a man told us we have to leave so they could clean up and I got very frustrated because we lived on opposite sides of Hoboken.” Throughout the process of passing this initiative, Wadler spoke with members of the SGA as well as Brendan Probst, co-founder of Quae. Wadler additionally detailed that he “wanted Babbio to stay open later but the library opening longer is even better to be honest [… and he] posted on Quae because I don’t fully know what SGA is doing for students so this is a cool link.”
One member of the SGA who spearheaded the initiative after the Quae post was Yiding Yang, the Vice President of Academic Affairs (VPAA) on the SGA Cabinet. Yang stated, “As VPAA, I mainly work with Vice Provost David Zeng to communicate issues concerning the student body. The original concern expressed by Dan was the lack of study space during later hours on campus. The easiest solution to this was to open the library for longer, which will be done in phases and be open until 2 a.m.”
Yang additionally stated that “it was a very smooth and easy process” in bringing the issue to administration. “I met with David and proposed different solutions such as keeping the other buildings open late, but that would not be feasible due to staffing costs and cleaning routine. Extended library hours is something that would address the problem and student workers can be hired for later shifts.”
Extending library hours is one of many initiatives that students have proposed using Quae. Other measures introduced by students include emergency on-campus housing, hybrid night classes, increased availability of COVID-19 testing on-campus, and more. Quae has also created an “Initiatives” section on the app to accommodate proposals by students that gain popularity. The Stute will keep readers updated on other changes to campus that originate in Quae.
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