On March 2, 2016, Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed into law a historic increase to the minimum wage, which has raised some budget conflicts to smaller universities such as Linfield College.

In July, the minimum wage will increase 50 cents and Nicholson Library will already be making changes for funding and operating hours for the upcoming academic year.

“The library can’t get more money, so we are going to have to decrease the hours slightly. It doesn’t have a huge impact this year.” Library Director Susan Barnes Whyte said.

The library will be closing at midnight instead of 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

“The one hour cut seems pretty insignificant when you look at it as a whole,” said Cruz Morey, ‘17.

“The library is better equipped for students to use rather than Renshaw. It’s unfortunate that hours have to be cut, but as long as they keep facilities like Renshaw available and places like Starbucks open until midnight, I think students can make the change,” Morey added.

This bill gave Oregon the highest statewide minimum wage rates in the nation.

By 2022, the minimum wage in Portland’s urban growth boundary will be $14.75, $13.50 in midsize counties and $12.50 in rural culture.

“It is not going to impact the library much,” Barnes Whyte says, “We have statistics between 12 and 1 a.m. on weekdays and the late afternoon on Saturdays and they are very low use.”

While these are minor changes this coming year, Barnes White said that we don’t know what is going to happen within the following years.

“Science majors need as much time to study in a quiet environment as possible . . . some people have work or clinical hours or practice or all three like I did so they can’t go earlier,” said Tricia Reeves.

As of now the shortened hours are the biggest changes for Nicholson Library.

“The library hires about 100 students each semester and the minimum wage is really going to impact our budget for financial aid students,” Barnes Whyte said.

“We probably wouldn’t be able to hire as many students but we’ll just have to see.”

Kathleen Reina said that she “knows of a lot of schools that have 24 hour gyms and libraries — I think Linfield can afford to be a bit more accommodating. For full-time students, midnight really isn’t that late. I’m sure most of us have those nights when we don’t even start our homework until midnight.”

However, this kind of limited work-study employment is affecting not only the library but also the whole campus.