CIC charging for equipment

Last week it was brought to students attention that the student senate was going to be discussing the current pattern of broken, stolen and damaged equipment from foosball, ping pong and pool players. The office of student life is looking for student input on this pattern of misused equipment and thoughts on the campus center (CIC) charging students for these activities.

Campus Center’s pool tables, foosball and ping pong

Why has this become such a problem? Jason Ramaker said, “Most students are good with equipment. Some are just not respectful. Perhaps they think, ‘It’s not my equipment and doesn’t cost me anything so why not be rough with it’? It’s frustrating and a lack of respect. You would think if you enjoyed using the equipment, you would respect it and not damage it.”

When asked what days/times of the week seemed to be the busiest and if they noticed an increase of damaged during these times, Jason noted that the equipment seems to be used most frequently around lunch and dinner hours and sometimes between 3-4 p.m. and 6:30-7:30 p.m. They have also noticed that there seems to be a pattern that damage happens most often when they don’t have a desk worker present so they are looking into not allowing the equipment to be used when there is no supervision.

Although charging a fee will probably decrease the usage of the equipment in the CIC because we know students don’t generally carry around a lot of cash for stuff like this, the goal of Student Life is not to make money or reduce usage, but to help reduce the destruction of property and hold users accountable for damage and lost equipment.

According to Jason, this issue of damaged property has been a problem on and off for several semesters. There used to be a charge for equipment six years ago but they stopped, and when they did charge they didn’t have as many problems with damage to equipment.

Student Life has been actively discussing how to hold students responsible for equipment that is returned damaged or if it is lost or stolen. Charging a fee is one way to do that but they have not come to a final decision as to how the process would work and if the fee would be something that would be refunded if the equipment was returned in good condition.

At the last meeting, the student senate did come to an agreement that students using the equipment need to be held more accountable for the damaged equipment and the desk workers need to be more accountable for the check-out process and collecting collateral (ID or license). It was decided that these issues will continue to be discussed without any action or policy change at this time.