Northwestern University Police discovered a furnished room under the stairway by the University Library entrance last Thursday, uncovering a space that had been used for months as a student hangout.

Although UPD Lt. Ron Godby said someone was illegally living in the room, students who frequented the space tells a different story.

Weinberg senior Patrick Fennig said he discovered the room while in Erickson-Koch Memorial Garden located near the library’s main entrance at the end of April and decided to furnish the space. By the end of the academic year, hundreds of students were frequenting the room, he said.

“I knew I wanted to make it a hangout room,” Fennig said. “(It’s) a public part of our private library.”

He made the room open to everyone to protest the university’s policies restricting public access to the library, he said.

During the academic year, the library is closed to the public after 5 p.m. on weekdays, after 12 p.m. on Saturdays, and all day Sunday.

Fennig named the room the “Northwestern Public Library” to go along with his vision for the space.

“I’ll say that I’m the creator, and they’ll say ‘It’s your space,'” he said. “I said, ‘No, it’s the public’s space.'”

With the help of friends, he cleared the floor of dirt and bits of concrete, leveled it with sand, and covered it with extra carpeting from Chapin Hall.

“You couldn’t even walk in there when it was started,” he said.

They then added donated furnishings including tables, chairs, bookshelves, a couch and solar-powered Christmas lights, Fennig said. Knowledge of the room spread by word of mouth at first.

“Everybody was walking to the library and hanging their heads,” Fennig said. “I would hang out by the library and see people I knew or vaguely knew. I’d take them in this room and see their faces totally change.”

Friends informed friends of the room’s existence, and Fennig created a hidden Facebook group for public library patrons.

By the last month of Spring Quarter, the room was heavily trafficked, with people visiting 24 hours a day, he said. To keep things under control, a sign placed on the inside of the door decreed that alcohol and drugs were prohibited and guests were to remove their shoes.

Nadia Rawls, Weinberg ’07, heard about the room when Fennig told her in a religion class.

“I loved it,” said Rawls, who now works for Teach for America. “It’s important that students have quirky things on campus.”

Fennig believes that his work on the room shows how oblivious NU students are, he said.

“People would be sitting in the garden area and they wouldn’t even notice me,” he said. “I’d go in (carrying) a couch and come out half an hour later, and they wouldn’t notice.”

Finally, a library staff member, who suspected the room was being used, informed police last Thursday.

Police closed off the room and have periodically checked it, although they have not seen anyone try to enter, Godby said.

Details about the space given by UPD differ from users’ accounts.

Godby said the case was classified as criminal trespass, and that police believed the door’s original lock was damaged in order to gain entry, an account that differs from Fennig’s.

In response to the room’s closure, Fennig plans to send a letter to library administrators and UPD explaining the purpose of the room after he returns from a two-week European vacation, he said.

“I want to be proud of it,” he said. “We’re making a place that’s really on the edge and innovative.” He remains doubtful that the room will be re-opened because of fire codes and liabilities, he said.

“It was disappointing to hear about,” he said. “Right now the Public Library is closed for renovation.”

Reach Jake Spring at [email protected].