University Libraries
More Marker Boards in the Library: SGA and the Dean’s Fund Deliver
By Maureen Schlangen
In late February, University Libraries Dean Kathleen Webb announced the installation of new dry-erase boards in 12 study rooms in Roesch Library, thanks to a Student Government Association grant and matching funds from the University Libraries Dean’s Fund for Excellence.
Daniel Hennessey, a sophomore SGA senator and mechanical engineering major from St. Louis, proposed the improvements in early 2020 after a student approached him with the idea.
“About midway through my first semester, a friend had come up to me and asked if there was any way I could work with SGA to add more whiteboards to the study rooms in the library, as those are go-to areas for students working together in groups,” Hennessey said in February from his engineering co-op at GE Appliances in Louisville, Kentucky. “I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to work closely with Dean Webb throughout the planning phases of the project, which helped to make the process very easy. I was also very fortunate that Dean Webb offered to match the contribution of SGA for the project.”
The boards cost about $330 each including installation, Webb said. With SGA’s grant of $2,000 and an additional $2,000 from Webb, the project resulted in not just new boards, but also some extra markers.
Spaces with erasable marker boards are in high demand in the Libraries. On any given morning, they’re routinely filled with content from the night before, from computer logic and calculus to brainstorms and molecular models.
“I personally use the whiteboards when working on group projects with others,” said Hennessey, a mechanical engineering major with a concentration in aerospace engineering. “I have found them to be especially beneficial when working on problems in my engineering classes with others as the whiteboards give us a lot of space to collaborate.”
Students, staff and faculty can reserve the study rooms online.
— Maureen Schlangen is an e-scholarship and communications manager in the University Libraries. Photo above: UD sophomore Daniel Hennessey (contributed photo) with an inset photo of a well-used whiteboard in Roesch Library the morning of March 10 (photo by health and life sciences librarian Jason Wardell).