With DePauw University's recent additions of Hoover Hall and Stewart Plaza, there is bound to be another upgrade in the coming years. In my opinion, Roy O. West Library is in a desperate need for an upgrade and should be the next project.
The three-story, red brick, eighty’s style building is filled with old, worn-out furniture that drifts students into a sleep. A library should be an encouraging environment for students’ studies, instead, Roy encourages students to take a nap.
Roy O. West was built in 1957 and has not been renovated since 1986, making it one of the oldest buildings on campus. Some students have been exercising every study option on campus to avoid studying at Roy. When the library is the last resort option for studying, it is time for an upgrade.
DePauw has done a tremendous job modernizing the campus to make it more inviting for students. Roy, however, is not one of the campus’s products of modernization. The furniture is old. The tables are old. It feels like you’re a character in “The Breakfast Club” when you’re inside it.
Having a new, beautiful library would help create one central studying spot for the campus. Many students choose to stay back and study at their living facility, which creates a divide amongst the campus. A common, central studying location would certainly help build more comradery among the students.
The upgrades to Roy O. West should start with making it more inviting. New furniture. More color. Brighter lighting. More lounge areas where students can take a break from studying and play a game of pool. Anything to get more people to start coming to the library more.
The additions of Hoover Hall and Stewart Plaza were necessary and major successes. DePauw must understand its next upgrade should be made to Roy O. West. An upgrade to the facility would bring more students to the library to study, which would create more campus-wide comradery. I do not think I stand alone with my belief that Roy should be modernized and upgraded. Make it happen, DePauw.