Charles Sturt University Has Found Six People Living in Their Library

In March, management at Charles Sturt University (CSU) discovered six people permanently sleeping in their library. All six of them were international students living in Sydney and travelling up to Port Macquarie for classes. But, as you’d imagine, organising and affording a place in both Sydney and Port Macquarie proved basically impossible, so they started crashing at the library.

One woman, dubbed “Diya” by the ABC, explained how she’d found herself functionally homeless in Port Macquarie. "We had applied for so many places, and we got rejected because we are students and it's a high risk factor for the agents, so getting our own place is quite hard," she said.

Sleeping in the library seemed like an obvious solution. That was until library staff noticed and reported them to management, who very nicely offered help them find other options.

The university's Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Jenny Roberts, told the Wauchope Gazette that the “students were offered a range of accommodation options which are available through CSU in Port Macquarie.”

Interestingly, everyone turned down the offer for paid accomodation and opted to stay with their friends.

According to one public relations officer with the Council of International Students Australia, this isn’t an usual situation for international students. "Some students stay at hostels or AirBnBs when they first get here, but once that is done, they become homeless and they feel safer to stay on campus, or in a campus library,” Arjun Mathilakath Madathil told the ABC. “It's a cultural difference, they don't know what is right or wrong, and they think this is the easiest and safest way for them to spend the night.”

But what Arjun also failed to acknowledge is Australia's very ingrained and homegrown culture of sleeping at uni. Anyone with a bachelor degree in something will know that sleeping at university is both a wonderful and inevitable experience. And there are entire Facebook university pages filled with photos of people sleeping at uni. CSU even has one, aptly titled “People Sleeping at CSU.”

So, like always, the takeaway message is that people will sleep in houses if they can afford to. Otherwise, libraries are quiet, warm, and usually come with free wi-fi.