Night owls looking for food and caffeine without going far from their desks will notice a change in McCabe Library: the snacks and tea bags put out nightly on the first floor are canceled. “Due to budget cuts, late-night snack time in McCabe Library will end,” a sign read. “Please feel free to bring your own snacks, tea bags, and coffee pods.”
The decision came down to two factors: the decision by Dining Services (who ran the program) to stop purchasing and providing snacks after evaluating other food options and logistical challenges and a 3% budget cut for the library department preventing Swarthmore Libraries from taking on the cost (approximately $2,000 per year) from Dining.
“There have actually been discussions about the future of the late-night snack program for a couple of years, especially as other late-night options have expanded across campus,” said Rob Goldberg, vice president for finance and administration. “When we first launched the program, there were very few places open after 9 or 10 p.m. Now, students can grab food at Crumb Cafe or in the Science Center, which is open until midnight.”
Similarly, Anthony Coschignano, associate vice president for campus services, said the budget was not the reason for the program’s suspension. Rather, the program caused logistical challenges for staff. With other options, including new vending machines accepting Swat Points, Coschignano and others felt it didn’t make sense to continue it.
After Dining Services’ decision to cut the late night snacks, McCabe Library’s budget didn’t allow it to pick up the additional cost. Like other departmental budgets, Swarthmore Libraries’s budget typically increases by 3 to 5% annually, according to Anne Houston, director of Swarthmore College Libraries. However, this year, the college took on budget-tightening measures due to expenses rising above revenue in recent years and federal uncertainty. Rather than rise, departmental budgets received cuts in travel, food, programming, and other discretionary spending.
“We’ve run small deficits in the past several years and have covered such shortfalls with reserve funds, but that’s not a sustainable practice,” wrote President Valerie Smith in a recent email to the Swarthmore community announcing the 2025-26 budget. “We must exercise greater fiscal restraint moving forward … To offset rising costs, we’re making modest budget reductions in several areas, including travel, catering, professional development, memberships and subscriptions, and equipment purchases.”
For McCabe, this cut will mostly not be salient to students, according to Houston. She said some digital subscriptions such as academic journals that are rarely used and memberships to professional librarian organizations will be canceled. “I really don’t think that this [budget] decrease affects our ability to serve a college, either students or faculty,” Houston said. “I think we can still do what we need to do.”
The library also has its own designated discretionary fund, which Houston said is large. The fund receives a share of endowment returns every year that McCabe can pull from to make up for any shortages.
In recent years, McCabe has focused on improving the building (constructed in 1967) with the funding it currently has and planning its first-ever renovation. The upcoming renovation will consider changing library needs, including declining physical book check-outs, climate change protections for collection materials, and devoted space for quiet studying. The department is currently on the master plan stage, which includes recommendations based on meetings with the campus community and visits to peer institutions’ libraries.
“I think the campus is handling the social space pretty well and that need for social studying, but we could use more spaces where students can really be alone and really focus and concentrate,” Houston said. “I think McCabe has those spaces, but they’re not very nice, because the building’s not very nice anymore.”
