Administration approves sleeping rooms

The administration has recently approved USG’s proposal to install sleeping rooms in every campus building. These sleeping rooms will provide a safe, quiet place for students to nap in between classes. Each room will be equipped with five beds and fifteen recliners. Student workers will keep these rooms clean and supervise the sleeping students.

These rooms will be open Monday through Friday from 8 am to 5 pm. At times, such as during finals week, the rooms will have extended hours. There will be a 50 minute limit that will be strictly enforced by the student workers. They will likely use air horns to rapidly wake all of the sleeping students. Students’ belongings will be locked in chests beneath the beds or behind the recliners to prevent theft. Additionally, students will not be able to share beds with other students.

Undergraduates are very supportive of the initiative, and many of them cited the fact that they have too much homework to get more than three hours of sleep every night. “Thank goodness we’ll have a place on campus to sleep,” Luke Black said. “I’m tired of napping in the big window in Hill. I’d rather have a bed,” said Amy Jones.

Graduate students, however, had a vastly different take on the issue. “Home is for sleeping,” said Susan Hu, “when I am at school, I need to be working.” Other graduate students agreed and have started a petition to stop the initiative. They need 2,000 signatures before the administration will consider their views. The petition can be found on the bulletin board in Engineering Hall from noon to 12:15 pm every day.

Professors have mixed opinions on the initiative. Several professors in the geology department have reacted positively to the proposed change; however, professors in the chemical and biological engineering department have expressed disgust. “We need our students working as hard as they can,” said a professor who preferred not to be named, “giving them a sleeping room is simply going to distract them even more from their studies.” Professors in the mechanical and petroleum engineering departments have expressed similar sentiments.

The administration has been ignoring these requests, noting that sleeping rooms make the campus more appealing to undergraduates. “How many schools in the country have dedicated rooms for napping?” a spokesperson asked. “None, that’s how many. Mines has always been on the forefront of innovation, and we hope this innovation will help us attract more of the best and brightest students to join us.”

Prospective students have been quite receptive to the change and many of them have expressed increased desires to attend Mines due to the change. “I love being able to relax between my classes,” Catherine Hale said. “It’s great to know that I won’t have to walk all the way home to get some rest during the day,” said Alex Kerney.

The sleeping rooms are scheduled to be added to campus within the next few years. Students can submit design ideas to USG at their next meeting; however, it is unclear how much of the students’ input will be used in the final design. Many speculate that the administration has already purchased furniture for these proposed rooms and is simply waiting until the end of the semester to move in the furniture and update classrooms for their new purpose, but this has yet to be confirmed. The administration is not taking public comments on this project.