Budget cuts in past years have caused cuts to staff and hours at Drinko Library. Now, after student petitions, a creative use of existing resources and simple optimism from administration, Drinko is reaching out to aid departments across campus and will once again be open 24 hours a day.

“The budget cuts in the 2014-2015 school year and loss of three full time positions was really going to hurt our ability to be open 24 hours as we were previously,” Monica Brooks, associate vice president of libraries and online learning at Drinko, said. Drinko began the fall 2015 semester without 24-hour full-building access.

“Students have requested that we go back to those hours, but we just haven’t had the staffing,” Brooks said.

President Gilbert helped Drinko re¬extend its hours.

“Because he’s interacted with so many students, they’ve made their concerns known about the building hours,” Brooks said. “He has worked with us to try some creative staffing methods with existing staff to see if this will work on a trial basis.”

When asked about the new hours, Jody Perry, executive director of technology services, said, “We’re on the right track.”

The Information Technology staff created the plan that will allow all of Drinko to remain open 24 hours. Requests have been made to MUPD to help with library night security, and it is possible that a security guard will be contracted as an alternative to putting more fulltime staff members on the midnight shift.

Sebastian Morris can be contacted at morris347@ marshall.edu.