The Fraser Library at SFU’s Surrey Campus is closed on Sundays, and the SFSS would like to change that.

In a survey conducted by the SFSS from January 18–29, 740 undergraduates who were registered in at least one course at the Surrey campus submitted responses. Eighty-one percent said that they would study at the library if it were open on Sundays.

The letter, written by VP University Relations Brady Yano, cites “complaints” heard by the SFSS “over the years” regarding the Fraser Library being closed on Sundays. 

Said Yano, “Complaints that were funneling through [the Surrey campus liaison] about just really having this issue of equality.” The Belzberg library in Vancouver and the Bennett library in Burnaby are both open on Sundays.

Why isn’t the library open on Sundays? Yano argued that it might be due to the fact that the Surrey campus is not operational on Sundays. He mentioned that there are no staff beyond security and that he has heard complaints stemming from over a year back, that “come Sundays, on the Surrey campus, the garbage cans are all overflowing and that’s because we don’t have any janitorial staff on campus.”

The Peak reached out to VP External Relations Joanne Curry, to whom the letter was addressed, for comment. Said Curry, who was director of the Surrey campus when it opened in 2002, “It was great to receive the letter from Brady on behalf of the SFSS. We really appreciated the survey data.”

She explained that even though the campus originally was meant to accommodate 2,500 full time students, since SFU students are free to take classes at any campus it can be difficult to “predict usage.”

The SFSS letter says that meetings with staff and administration have “produced minimal results” and that “ongoing commitment to this initiative has not been reciprocal.” Yano explained further: “It seemed as though we were experiencing a significant amount of stalling on SFU’s end.” He cited the turnover among administration as a possible reason for this.

Curry explained, “Because of the financial implications, I think it was a little bit stalled out. I think certainly the administration wants to be responsive so it was a case of just looking at various options.”

Yano, in his letter, argues for a pilot project which would open the library from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m on Sundays as of the 2016 Fall semester. He estimated that it would cost $150,000 to open the library on Sundays for an entire year. This means the pilot project could cost $50,000, an amount which was not budgeted for in the 2016–2017 budget, slated to be approved come March.

The Peak asked Curry where the money would come from for the pilot project. She did not say for certain, but noted that money could be taken from Surrey’s external relations portfolio.

Curry continued, “We really like the idea of a pilot.” She further said that along with the pilot, she wishes to increase student’s awareness of the existing study spaces on the Surrey Campus.

She hopes that the response to pilot project might “give the data to support a budget request for the ongoing fiscal years.”

Yano opined that “at the end of the day, if we opened up the library on Sundays and nobody went, then obviously it would be just a waste of resources.”