Beginning sometime this week, the Office of Residential Life and the Undergraduate Council of Students will offer summer storage vouchers from Smart Movers, the Woburn, Mass.-based shipping and storage firm that offered last year's vouchers. This year's vouchers will be worth $60 - an increase of $10 from last year - and will be available to 600 students chosen by lottery.
ResLife opted to initiate a voucher system after discontinuing on-campus storage in the summer of 2004. Storage in these spaces lacked careful organization and students complained of damage to belongings and theft, according to Richard Bova, senior associate dean of Residential Life.
Last year, students seeking vouchers lined up outside the office of Brown Student Agencies in Faunce House and received them on a first-come, first-served basis. Only 551 of the 700 vouchers were redeemed. This year, vouchers will be assigned randomly to entrants of a UCS lottery. Students will be able to enter their names later this week through a link on the UCS Web site.
A voucher can be redeemed for a standard package of two small boxes and one medium box, for a total of six cubic feet of storage space. It can also be credited toward a larger purchase, according to UCS Representatives Michael Glassman '09 and Andrew Krupansky '09. Combining the voucher with the purchase of a large box, priced at $44, would provide storage space roughly the size of a station wagon trunk, Glassman and Krupansky said.
The lottery will not take into account a student's geographic location and financial need, as then-UCS President Brian Bidadi '06 suggested in a September interview with The Herald. A system based on a student's hometown would generate logistical headaches, Krupansky said.
"How would you say to someone who lives 10 miles further west than (another student), 'Oh, well, you can't have storage?'" Krupansky said.
Brown students who do not receive vouchers will still receive a $1-2 discount per box if they choose to store through Smart Movers.
Glassman and Krupansky engineered this year's plan in tandem with Bova and Thomas Forsberg, associate director of housing and residential life. They ultimately decided to stick with Smart Movers after researching approximately a dozen storage companies.
Smart Movers offered the best prices, most flexibility and highest security, Glassman and Krupansky said. The company also received positive reviews from Brown students who took advantage of the vouchers last year.
Anna Leibinger '08, who used a voucher last year, praised Smart Movers for its convenient pickup and drop-off points and added that her belongings were stored safely. She noted, however, that $50 met less than one-third of her storage needs, however, and that the box provided through the voucher system "can maybe store one person's bedding."
Mariposa Garth-Pelly '08 also rated her experience with Smart Movers as positive, though she said she had to pay an additional $30 because her box was 30 pounds over the 70-pound weight limit.
Bova said he received only one student complaint - related to an incorrectly scheduled drop-off - about Smart Movers last year.
"The company has an excellent track record," Bova said. According to its Web site, Smart Movers stores for 22 large schools in the Northeast, including Harvard and Columbia universities.
Krupansky also cited the company's security. Because Smart Movers is bonded, students' property would be protected by the federal government if the company were to go bankrupt.
This year, Smart Movers has agreed to hire only Brown students as workers for storage needs at the University. Brown Student Agencies will again help Smart Movers find student employees.
Glassman and Krupansky hope to look into long-term storage plans, including a contract with Smart Movers. Such a contract, like the one BSA currently has with The Campus Laundry Service, would allow UCS to negotiate for better rates and a larger number of vouchers.
"I would really encourage students who need subsidized vouchers to take advantage of this plan," Bova said. "If you don't need subsidized vouchers, don't get them."
