It's nearing that time of the school year again — the end, that is. A quarter of us are leaving for good, but most of us will be back in the fall — and those of us who aren't from the area will need somewhere to store our stuff over the summer.
In previous years, the University has contracted with a company to bring storage boxes to streets on campus. For students without cars, this service was helpful, but of course, it didn't come without a cost. What's worse, these companies often don't take the best care of students' belongings. We have heard anecdotally of students returning from their break to find items lost, broken or even covered in mildew.
This isn't the University's fault, and Brown has helped out in recent years by providing storage subsidies through a lottery. But, we think, even given current budget constraints, it could do more. And in the past, it has.
Before 2004, the University offered cost-free, on-campus storage to students. Clearly there is a lot of extra room on campus during the summer. While the program was in effect, for example, residence hall basements and other University facilities were used. Given that the space would go unused during the summer anyway, this practice made eminently good sense.
Unfortunately, The Herald reported shortly afterwards, the program was canceled due to "liability and quality control issues." Apparently, students would store valuable, fragile items like laptops, and the University could neither insure their safety nor afford the inevitable costs associated with any damage or theft, the result being that all students must now either pay significant amounts or go through a big hassle — or both — to store their things.
We understand the difficulties these liabilities put the University through. But surely it could condition use of its free storage on a waiver of liability and on a refusal to accept expensive items. And even if the costs were still too high to justify providing this service for free, Brown-provided storage facilities would undoubtedly be cheaper and more convenient than those of the current private companies we use.
Brown could also help students out during this stressful time by hiring students looking for on-campus jobs to help others with the move-out. Given the lack of elevators in many residence halls and the age or unavailability of many students' families, the process can be difficult. Other universities have such programs, and we hope the University looks into the possibility of instituting them here as well.
As always, the University needs to prioritize the use of its funds. It can't provide every little convenience to students. But we think these two changes would be relatively inexpensive and make moving out for the summer a much easier and less stressful experience. At the least, we encourage the University to take these ideas as a starting point when considering ways to improve summer storage.
Editorials are written by The Herald's editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
