In response to an editorial published last week in Pipe Dream, the Dean of Students office has announced extended hours and expanded locations for students to study during finals week.

Starting on Tuesday, December 15, the University Union will be open for 24 hours a day, and first-floor classrooms will be available to students as study spaces. In addition, the lounges and Marketplace will be open around-the-clock. Sodexo has announced that Bearcat Cafe and Cakes & Eggs will have extended hours as well.

According to Suzanne Howell, the associate dean of students, the extended hours were created after the department recognized the need for more study spaces on campus.

“We at the Dean of Students Office do care about helping our students study for finals,” she said. “We have listened and have opened extended study spaces in a number of places on campus.”

In the residential communities, classrooms will have extended hours. College-in-the-Woods’ Tuscarora Classroom 219 will be open from 7 p.m. until 11 p.m. starting Tuesday, while Appalachian Classroom GO14 and Rockefeller Center Classroom 159 in Mountainview and Hinman, respectively, will be open from 6 p.m. until 11 p.m.

But perhaps the biggest announced change is that the University Downtown Center will see expanded hours. Beginning Wednesday, the UDC information commons and rooms 121 and 122 will be open from 7:30 p.m. until 1:00 a.m.

OCCT has also announced expanded hours. On Saturday and Sunday, the DCL and West Side will run until 3 a.m. The Downtown Express, UP and Campus Shuttles will also run late into the night.

Finals week begins Wednesday, December 16 and goes until Tuesday, December 22.

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect the fact that OCCT announced expanded hours on December 19 and 20.