Late night study sessions may be ending a little early. Meriam Library’s computer lab and lounge hours are changing.

Manager of IT Support Services Scott Kodai said, the changes are partly due to budgeting but mostly to keep students safe.

“It’s just not safe for students to leave the lab at two in the morning,” Kodai said.

The first floor’s hours will match the normal library closing hours. The money being saved will go toward IT services, and it will help bring extra hands in the office for students that need help.

New hours include:

· Sunday: 12 p.m. – 11:45 p.m.

· Monday to Thursday: 7:30 a.m. – 11:45 p.m.

· Friday: 7:30 a.m. – 5:45 p.m.

· Saturday: 12 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.

Saturday hours were the most affected by this change. Before the cut the hours ranged from 10 a.m. to 7:45 p.m., but now they are five hours shorter.

Students that regularly use the library will need to adjust to the new hours.

“It’s going to make us need to be on our game a lot more with scheduling ourselves,” junior journalism major Rhonda Gaynor said. “But I think at the same time, that’s something we pay for in our tuition so we should be able to have more hours to utilize the library of all things.”

These new hours aren’t sitting well for students, especially those who work in the library. “it’s a huge cut and so I’m only getting 13 hours a week this year, opposed to other years when I got maybe 18.” said Trenton Bilodeaux, a student supervisor at the library.

Bilodeaux also said that for finals week, the entire library will be open 24 hours, not just the first floor.

New hours are available online. They are continuing to fluctuate so changes may occur.

Kyla Linville can be reached at [email protected] or @kyla_linville on Twitter.