Last week, the UB has tightened its Covid restrictions. Students can now spend a maximum of 25 hours in the library and their IDs are checked. The latter action, mainly leads to longer queues.
Every single desk in the UB’s lobby is manned. ‘Check your reservation here’, signs next to the employees state. All the students entering the building have to produce their student ID, with staff checking their identity manually. Red-and-white tape prevents students from sneaking in. Anyone stepping out for a smoke has to show their ID again.
Problems
The mandatory checks are causing long queues, which in turn is causing problems. If you haven’t scanned the QR code on your table within thirty minutes of your reservation, it is cancelled and given to somebody else. Even if students are just a few seconds too late.
‘I arrived a few minutes before my reservation time’, says international business student Emelia van der Veer, ‘but there was a huge queue. How was I supposed to know?’ She’s upset. ‘I understand that it’s to protect our health, but isn’t there some other way?’
But the previous policy also wasn’t working. Students tried to abuse the Covid restrictions. ‘People booked tables for fifteen minutes and then just occupied them all day. That wasn’t cool, either’, says international relations and organisations student Evi Muscus.
Alone at a table
But Evi doesn’t understand why so few people are allowed inside. ‘At the UB, I’m all alone at a table for twelve, but in class, I’m right next to other students.’
Psychology student Dani realises there simply isn’t enough room. ‘Everything is taken before you can have a proper look at what’s still open.’ It’s particularly frustrating for students who can’t focus studying at home, like Anne Koster. ‘I mean, come on! My studies are intense, and now I’m forced to go home to my parents and study there.’