Selby Kia: ASUCLA should better advertise Ackerman study spaces

Nothing says fall-quarter midterm season like cool air and overcrowded libraries. For UCLA students, only a few things can be more aggravating than desperately trying to find a quiet space to concentrate before a big exam.

Associated Students UCLA understands this frustration. That’s why it designates meeting rooms on the second and third floors of Ackerman Union as “open study” rooms when meetings are not taking place. This is a great concept – except for the fact that most students don’t know about it.

ASUCLA doesn’t advertise its study spaces. It mainly relies on foot traffic to do the talking, said Roy Champawat, director of the ASUCLA Student Union. But students can’t take advantage of these study spaces unless they know they exist. Without adequate advertisement, the rooms remain empty between meetings. Meanwhile, students scramble to find a place to study.

The association needs to better publicize which meeting rooms in Ackerman Union are open for use, and detail what times they are available. It can do this through posting on the UCLA Library website and Facebook as well as posting flyers in Powell, Kerckhoff and Ackerman Union advertising the study spaces. Doing so would not only ensure better utilization of the space, but it would also provide a place to study for students already dining or shopping in Ackerman.

As of now, ASUCLA publicizes the meeting rooms by updating signs outside of the rooms that say when they are available for that day, and by putting this information on some screens in the building. That means the only way students can know what times the rooms are available is by actually going to Ackerman and reading the signs posted outside the doors.

For most students, this is wildly inconvenient. That’s the main reason why An Nguyen, a fourth-year computer science student, said she doesn’t utilize the rooms.

“I don’t really come there to study – unless I just happen to be there when it’s open,” she said.

Nguyen said she once used a meeting room and liked studying there. However, she added she has not come back because when she needs a place to study, she does not want to go out of her way to search Ackerman only to find out the meeting rooms are not open.

Champawat said the best opportunity for students to use the meeting rooms is during the day, when many students are in class and the rooms are mostly unoccupied. The rooms vary in when and how long they are open, but Ackerman closes at 1 a.m. Mondays through Thursdays, which gives students sufficient time to make use of the rooms as study spaces.

He added the idea of opening the meeting rooms in Ackerman for students to study in came about because they simply leave the rooms unlocked in between meetings so that any student can use them.

And students seem to like the idea of using these rooms to study in. Midori Heap-Baldwin, a fourth-year political science student, said she looks for space, a power outlet and silence in a study space – all three of which the meeting rooms can provide. The meeting rooms are also large enough to accommodate groups of students, making it ideal for projects and study groups.

Heap-Baldwin said she would take advantage of the rooms if she knew about them since studying outside can be hit or miss depending on the weather and the lack of outlets. The meeting rooms would be convenient for students in the Ackerman and Kerckhoff area who need a quiet place to study.

Not knowing when a room will be open should not be the factor that bars students from using it. ASUCLA could easily fix this by posting the meeting rooms’ daily availability on the UCLA Library webpage as an alternative resource when library study rooms are fully booked.

Of course, Ackerman does get foot traffic, and that could ostensibly attract students in proximity to the rooms. However, the foot traffic in Ackerman is concentrated on the floors with restaurants and stores, and few students actually make it to the third floor of Ackerman, where many of the rooms are located. And those who do might not even know to look for the study rooms without being better informed.

Moreover, Champawat said ASUCLA could have a more aggressive outreach in publicizing the open study rooms. He said sometimes the signs outside the doors with the posted times are not updated if there is a smaller window of time in between meetings – meaning at times the posted signs might be inaccurate.

ASUCLA is remodeling its Ackerman first-floor dining room to increase spaces for studying and socializing. The remodel should be finished by the beginning of winter quarter and will include new tables and USB ports. These kinds of study spaces are crucial, especially toward the end of the quarter when deadlines approach and students need to study for exams.

Ackerman is the students’ union, and these study spaces help it better fulfill its role. ASUCLA needs to let students know about these spaces, rather than let them go to waste.