In the spring 2025 semester, Northeastern’s Student Government Association, or SGA, held a university-wide referendum that showed 76% of student voters favored reinstating the Snell Library silent floor policy.
The silent fourth floor policy in Snell was removed in July 2023 following renovations to the building in 2022. Previously, Snell operated on a noise gradient system; as the floor number increased, the noise level decreased, with the fourth floor designated a silent study area. Now, in place of the policy, smaller areas on the fourth floor have been allocated for silent study.
“With the redesign of the library, the noise gradient was kind of replaced with the silent zones on the fourth floor, which we know are limited in capacity and not the entire floor,” said Dylan Lee, a data science and economics combined major and SGA executive vice president. “So the library is working hard to supplement that area with more silent areas. But in general, the layout of the library now is much more focused on collaborative space, unfortunately.”
The referendum, authored by Jonathan Kopel, who graduated in 2025 with a biochemistry degree, received 8,668 student responses; 6,582 of those students supported reinstating the silent policy on the fourth floor, while 2,086 opposed it. The referendum was posted on the Northeastern Student Hub where students were able to vote.
“Before the major recent renovations to Snell Library, it was generally accepted that the first floor was a collaboration floor, and as you went up the floors, the noise level decreased,” the referendum reads. “The fourth floor was considered to be a ‘silent zone’ with absolutely no talking, allowing students on that floor to have a quiet place to study.”
The referendum called on Northeastern to reinstate silent policy signs.
“Northeastern should re-put up signs throughout Snell detailing the noise restrictions on each floor, reinstating the previous noise gradient in the building,” the referendum reads, adding that students should be able to call the Snell front desk to report policy violations.
Kyle Sy, a first-year mechanical engineering major, said he feels that if one floor were to have a silent policy, it should be the fourth.
“I would actually recommend the fourth floor be the quietest, but there are also quiet rooms as well,” Sy said.
Lashmirenuga Ganeshbabu, a first-year health science and business combined major, said she doesn’t think the fourth floor should be a quiet zone at all.
“I feel like the fourth floor is kind of the largest and has a lot of collaborative seating, so I feel like there shouldn’t be a floor that’s just the quiet floor. I like the idea of quiet rooms instead,” she said.
Ganeshbabu said she also has not seen any posters or flyers about Snell’s policy designating certain areas on the fourth floor as quieter.
Though the referendum passed, that doesn’t mean Northeastern will automatically reinstate the fourth floor silent policy. According to Julian Herzing-Burkard, a fourth-year international business major and SGA president, referendums are more like polls, not binding legislation.
“[Referendums] could be called studentwide surveys,” Herzing-Burkard said. “In essence, what they’re trying to do is capture how students feel about an issue, and we get to put that question to all students on the Student Hub.”
Though referendums don’t lead to immediate change, SGA can use the results as a bargaining chip in discussions with Northeastern administration.
“The biggest opportunity for us is to gauge how students feel about something, and use it as data and evidence toward making changes at the university,” Herzing-Burkard said. “It doesn’t mean that it will happen, because we don’t have governing authority over the library, for example.”
Since the referendum passed, SGA’s Academic Affairs board has been in contact with Northeastern administration about creating more quiet spaces in Snell.
“Our division of academic affairs has already been in conversations about creating new quiet rooms in Snell, and there will be updates very soon,” Herzing-Burkard said, adding that new quiet spaces will be announced shortly.
Meanwhile, SGA is working with Dean of the Library Dan Cohen to explore more study options in the Curry Student Center.
SGA is working to open up some club rooms in Curry for study space during finals week. Moreover, it is working alongside Dean of the Library Dan Cohen to add more silent study space.
“One of the projects we’re working on for the fall is to open those with the help of the Curry Student Center operational team, to allow students to study in all these rooms — the ballroom, the bookable rooms on the fourth floor, the dance rooms, the Cloud Suite,” Lee said.
In the meantime, Lee and Hurzing-Burkard encourage students to explore other study spots, such as 300 Massachusetts Ave., the chairs by the Koi Pond and ISEC.
This article was updated Nov. 3 at 12:30 p.m. to clarify when study spaces in CSC would be available to students. Also, to clarify that SGA is working with Cohen to implement silent study space and with CSC operations on opening spaces for finals.
