Non-affiliates becoming too familiar for some

By Brittany Benjamin

Senior Ryan Taylor had just hit 1300 words on his art history paper Nov. 9 in the library, when he noticed a man sitting in a nearby cubicle and found himself suddenly unable to concentrate. He did not finish his paper and the man's strange behavior sparked Taylor to call Campus Safety.

Disturbed by what he saw, he e-mailed his 17th-Century Italian art and sculpture professor for an extension on his paper.

"Some pervert was trying to masturbate in the library in front of me," he wrote his professor. "This may be the weirdest excuse you have received, but I swear it is true."

After Campus Safety arrived, the unidentified man ran out of the Harrington Learning Commons as fast as he could, Taylor said. Campus Safety later caught up to him, instructing him to never return to campus.

"Being a guy, I don't feel weird about the whole situation -- I actually think it is funny," Taylor said. "The girls that I either told or heard about it, though, couldn't believe something like that would happen here and said they felt sick after hearing it."

Taylor is only one of several students who report non-affiliates disrupted their studies while in the library. In an online survey a snoring woman, boisterous kids, inappropriate use of computers and harassment were some of the most common disruptions reported by students. Additionally, senior Makenzie Rosengreen, who works with the library's Automated Retrieval System, said there have been instances where employees have caught men looking at pornographic images on the computer.

The most common complaint focuses on study space being occupied by members of the public -- particularly non-affiliates using the space for sleeping.

"One -- they could be snoring which is distracting," senior Rachael Dickey said. "Two -- they would be taking up space that a student who needs to study could use."

Meanwhile, library and Campus Safety officials maintain that this is nothing out of the ordinary.

"I'm not aware of any growing number of non-affiliates entering the library nor of any complaints from students or staff that are any greater than we generally receive in the normal course of business," said Campus Safety Director Charles Arolla.

"If non-affiliates are entering after that time then they are tailgating students who are not providing sufficient attention to their surroundings when entering the building after public hours," Arolla said.

In fact, there is no way to track exactly how many public users enter the library at any given time because there is no checkpoint upon entering the library, except after hours when students must swipe their Access cards to enter the building.

Meanwhile Taylor's professor said Taylor was understandably freaked out by his experience. She is worried about her students' safety, especially after hearing other students talk about additional suspicious incidents. She said she is concerned, especially because the library, which, along with its preceding Orradre Library, has been open to the public since it opened.

She said a big difference exists between Santa Clara's library compared to others. Most public libraries close at 6 or 7 p.m., while the Harrington Learning Commons remains open until 2 a.m. regularly, although the library technically closes to the public at 11 p.m.

For those non-affiliates who are in the library before this 11 p.m. deadline, no effort is made to clear them from the library.

Taylor's disturbance is just one of several being voiced by Santa Clara students.

In an online survey, one-in-three students say they have been distracted by a member of the public while in the library. Thirty percent said they have felt uncomfortable in the library due to a member of the community.

Senior Liz O'Brien was surprised to find a woman snoring and fast asleep in a second-floor booth next to the library's main staircase.

"She snores like a buzz saw," O'Brien said. "She didn't look homeless but she didn't strike me as a professor either. She didn't have anything library relevant."

Dickey also encountered the woman, this time on the third floor and asleep on a couch. She describes the woman as blonde and about 40 to 50-years old, and who usually carries a book with her, but falls asleep and begins to snore loudly.

"I went downstairs to complain, but when I came back up she was awake," Dickey said. "She was sleeping in the same spot the next day."

University librarian Elizabeth Salzer points out that non-affiliates are not the only ones causing disturbances. Problems to the building are not necessarily directly linked to the outside community but may be resulting from student usage as well.

Most frequent, Salzer said, is loud noise carrying from group study rooms.

"I know there is sometimes a perception that it might be tied to the community, but our experiences is that it hasn't been," Salzer said. "Yes there have been some cases over the years, very few, but there have also been some cases related to students who would have been in the building under any circumstances."

Additionally, disruptions by members of the public seem to be the exception rather than the rule.

Sixty-six percent of surveyed students said they have encountered a member of the public, but have not been disrupted by their behavior.

Ronald Danielson, vice provost for Information Services and chief information officer, noted that his wife, who is writing a book, uses the library because she finds the atmosphere less distracting than her home.

"She builds a little nest up in the third floor and is a non-affiliate who is using the building, but who I don't think is causing any disturbances," Danielson said.

"I see people who seem not to be Santa Clara students -- and certainly not undergraduate students -- who are using the building in ways that don't seem to impinge upon others," she said.

Overall, students feel safe in the library. Ninety-one percent of surveyed students say they have never felt unsafe because of a member of the public.

The biggest problem seems to be a need for study space which is being used by people who simply aren't studying.

Salzer stated that she would not ask anybody who was caught sleeping in the building to leave immediately, though she doesn't encourage it.

"We don't have a rule that says people can't sleep in the library," she said.

Yet students disagree.

"I'm already irritated with the lack of study space available in the library, if you're not using the library expressly for what it is for, then please leave," O'Brien said. "I need that space to do work."

Contact Brittany Benjamin at brbenjamin@scu.edu or (408) 554-4546.