Dear Professors Anderson, Heckel, Lazowska, Majeski and Wilson, Thank you for taking time to res ond

to this etition! "t is encouraging that students are #eing reached directly #y you and your colleagues, and are now gaining, for the first time in this matter, access to new information rele$ant to their academic e% erience at the &W, in articular, some of your moti$ations and actions! Although we consider your letter to #e a ositi$e ste in romoting a trans arent interaction #etween students and &W decision makers with regard to the Physics'Astronomy li#rary, we #elie$e further efforts must #e made in order to #egin a constructi$e dialogue! "n articular we are una#le to determine from your res onse if our s ecific concerns, as clearly resented in the etition statement, are addressed in any satisfactory way! As such, we re'e% ress our underlying (uestions and concerns more cris ly, encouraging the &W arties in$ol$ed in this roject to ro$ide further information, and further to seek in ut from the students themsel$es, as the main users of the PA)), #efore roceeding with the current lan! *ot only students were not consulted regarding a change of status of a uni$ersity resource that they use as art of their education, #ut also the u#lic announcement of the u coming closure and the lanned re ur osing of the s ace has #een made with considera#le delay, and with what a ears to #e a reluctance #y the in$ol$ed &W arties! +raduate students in the Physics de artment were only informed last ,anuary $ia their re resentati$es, while Physics undergraduate students were notified much later, and only u on in(uiry! To our knowledge, students in other de artments ha$e not #een notified #y official channels yet, and the resentation of the news is limited to a concise - and what is widely $iewed to #e $ague statement on an un u#licized age on the li#rary we# site! "n addition, the te%t of the hy erlink was changed from .Transition to Data Science Studio/ to .Physics-Astronomy Reading Room to close permanently on June 13, 201 ! ne" Data Science Studio opens #all 201 / immediately after we started announcing this de$elo ment in htt 011sa$ing arr!word ress!com1! We would a reciate an e% lanation of this lack of communication with students! 2uch a clarification would go a long way to regaining the trust in our uni$ersity decision makers, and will mo$e us toward resol$ing the current conflict of interest #etween students and the &W administration! As no s ecific information on the re'design of the 3 th floor s ace has #een resented, nor has a floor lan #een a$aila#le to us, we are una#le to e$aluate your statements regarding the increase in the a$aila#le study and research area while maintaining the same (uality of intellectual and educational en$ironment! 4ur in(uiries regarding the design of the s ace, as well as our com rehensi$e we# search in the ho e of finding a u#lic announcement on this matter, has led us only to a slide resentation #y 5dward Lazowska in com uter science, a$aila#le at htt 011lazowska!cs!washington!edu16e#7! df! "n this document, it has #een e% licitly mentioned that the ro osed data science institute lans to ha$e 89'8: data science researchers reside on the 3 th floor! This #rings us to the students; largest concern that the (uietness and ins iring atmos here of the li#rary may not #e maintained in any meaningful way gi$en the resence of a full'time interacti$e <and conse(uently noisy= o eration of 89'8: eo le in the s ace that you en$isage D22 to ro$ide to students and faculty from all de artments, as detailed in your

res onse! "t is also a matter of serious dou#t that de$oting office s aces and ermanent desks to e$en a ortion of these eo le lea$es any more common study and research area than is currently a$aila#le to students in the Physics'Astronomy li#rary! Additionally, it is unclear to us that in the ro osed lan of the D22, the sharing of the magnificent $iews and natural light, which are elements inse ara#le from the PA)), #etween the li#rary users and Data 2cience users will not negati$ely im act the (uality of our li#rary s ace and the e% erience of the li#rary users! PA)) is a uni$ue li#rary on cam us as is re eatedly mentioned in etition su orters; comments! Many students, after e% eriencing the newly designed research commons in li#rary com le%es across the cam us, end u in the more traditional setting of PA)) for erforming a focused work, and for enjoying the s ectacular 2eattle $iews while studying! 4ne cannot claim that the functionality of such a uni(ue s ace for concentration and ondering will #e im ro$ed #y adding additional seats> in fact we sus ect that this will ha$e the o osite effect! 4ur (uestion for the decision makers in this rocess is whether any com rehensi$e study in$ol$ing students in &W has #een erformed to determine to what degree the efficiency criteria for a li#rary1study area ha$e #een met in the PA)) com ared to an o timal s ace with the same functionality - and to what e%tent the in ut from the fre(uent users of the s ace has #een taken into account! We would like to ha$e the results of this study resented to us and #e o en for de#ate and u#lic discussions #y all mem#ers of &W as it is clear that PA)) ser$es the needs of a community much larger than just Physics and Astronomy! Due to not ha$ing access to ersonal offices, undergraduate students at the Physics and Astronomy de artments, as well as many other de artments on cam us, greatly rely on the (uiet and comforta#le setting in the PA)) to study! 6urthermore, each year thousands of &W freshmen take introductory Physics courses, followed #y se$eral tutorial and la# sections, with minutes to hours ga s #etween classes throughout the day! As a result, the need for a li#rary in the Physics #uilding com le% to accommodate their needs is e$en more rominent! 4ur s ecific (uestion for the &W decision makers is whether the undergraduate <no'key= access to the 3th floor remains unaltered during what is currently defined in the 899? M4& as the PA));s o en hours in the ro osed lan for the li#rary assuming the new layout of the floor is agreed to #e com ara#le or su erior to the current li#rary setu ! We assume graduate students, ostdoctoral and research fellows, $isiting scholars and faculty can continue accessing the 3 th floor unlimitedly after the reno$ation! 2 ecifically we would like to know0 After the renovation, will both the undergraduate and graduate students have the same or enhanced access to the 6th floor space that they currently enjoy?

We, as well as our su orters including students, research scholars, faculty, $isiting research scientists, alumni, mem#ers of the &W resident clu#, as well as concerned arents, look forward to a res onse from you! )egards, @ohreh Da$oudi, on #ehalf of the etitioners!