California’s budget cuts are hitting public schools and students hard.

The Cerritos College library and computer labs posted new hours for the 2009 Spring semester.

The library is now closing an hour earlier Monday through Thursday. Closing time will now be at 9 p.m.

Closing time on Saturdays will now be at 1 p.m., two hours earlier than the previous closing time.

Friday hours will remain the same for the library.

However, both computer assisted instruction labs are closing an hour and a half earlier Monday through Thursday.

Now, the labs will be closing at 7:30 p.m.

Friday hours remain the same but on Saturdays, the labs will be closed.

Interim Dean of the Library and Learning Resource Center Linda D. Rose said, “The number one reason for the hour changes are the state of California budget cuts.”

She also mentioned that another reason for the hour changes was that the school had to keep the maintenance of the building into consideration.

“Janitorial staff must be efficient to help the budget crunch,” she said.

Rose mentioned the school thought about the hour changes long and hard because it had to keep the students of Cerritos College in mind.

It was worried about how the changes would affect the students and made a decision based on students’ best interest.

Computer Lab supervisor Masoud Alavian said, “Due to budget cuts, we were asked to shorten computer lab hours,”

Fernando Ibarra, music major and part time worker for the library said he is happy that he still has a job.

“The change of hours did not affect me here at the library,” he confessed, “but I did lose my other job at the humanities and social sciences department two semesters ago due to budget cuts.”

Joan Samson, nursing major, said, “This is my first semester here and my last class ends at 9 p.m.By the time I get out of class, everything will be closed. That extra hour that they are cutting could’ve come in handy to study at the library.”

Business major Sam Yu said, “I take mostly night classes and use the computer lab and library between classes. I will have to cut short on studying and computer use on campus.”