Summer storage capacity decreases

Undergraduates will have a harder time storing their belongings over the summer this year.

With the demolition of the Butler Quad and the renovation of parts of Forbes College, several on-campus storage spaces will no longer be available. As a consequence, on-campus storage will be limited to international students and students going abroad for the fall semester.

Director of Building Services Jonathan Baer said campus storage was restricted to those two groups because they were "reasonable candidates for the remaining storage spaces" in several dorms across campus.

In past years, all students were allowed to store two boxes on campus for free, University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt '96 said. But, she added, there are no plans for the University to offer free storage alternatives now that space has been restricted.

"This will be consistent policy from now on," she said.

Students will now either have to use the Moving and Storage Agency, seek an outside storage service, or find a friend or family member with whom they can store their possessions over the summer. The Moving and Storage Agency's storage facilities are not on campus.

Additionally, high-security summer storage will no longer be available on campus. Cliatt explained that with the advent of increasingly smaller electronic equipment, fewer students are storing stereo systems and desktop computers. "We have not seen demands for high-security storage," she said.

Because of construction and renovations on campus that have become necessary as the University expands, the University has lost significant amounts of storage space, Cliatt added. "We don't expect to return to [the amount of] available space that existed in the late '90s."

But Cliatt noted that the reduction in on-campus storage opportunities shouldn't be a significant loss for most undergraduates. "We're only talking about two boxes per student," she said.

In addition, Cliatt said, the University has found that students were using the Moving and Storage Agency's storage services anyway.

Nevertheless, some students said they are unhappy with the new developments.

"Summer storage is a huge problem for all of us who can't just drive home," Katie Gose '08 said.

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Gose, who lives in California, said she has used the Moving and Storage Agency rather than on-campus storage in past years. "But," she said, "basement storage helped cut down on the costs."

"I think the lack of on-campus storage is going to end up costing a lot of people a lot of money," she added.

Sarah Hemmendinger '10, who is from Baltimore, said that she would have used the complementary on-campus storage facilities if they were still available. Instead, she said she will take everything home by car. "It's a pain, but I guess I have no choice," she said.

Mac Steele '10, who is from Seattle, Wash., said that he and his roommate will rent a storage space since free on-campus storage is no longer available for students from the United States.

Gose said she believes the University should do something to replace the lost space. "The school might think about subsidizing a bit of the student agency's costs, at least for students on financial aid," she said.