Ohio University officials are offering a way to stay dry in Athens’ rainy weather with its umbrella sharing program, “yOUr Umbrella.”
Umbrellas will be located on the first and fourth floor entrances to Baker University Center beginning Monday. Each canister, located at the entrances, will contain about eight to ten umbrellas, said Evan Wilkof, graduate assistant for operations at Baker.
These 60-inch golf umbrellas won’t have tags or be monitored by a checkout system, so students can easily borrow and return them to Baker as is necessary, Wilkof said.
There were more than 15 theft offenses during the Fall Semester for the 2013-14 academic year, according to university data.
“We are simply going to place trust in our students,” Wilkof said. “It is a service that we want to provide to our students and campus community members. There are similar institutions of our size and larger that have implemented similar programs.”
The Easton Town Center in Columbus has one in place, Wilkof said.
The umbrellas will be paid for by “money saved in staffing,” said Dusty Kilgour, executive director of Event Services, in a previous Post article.
Exact costs weren’t available as of press time.
“This is a great idea,” said Erika Davis, a sophomore studying social work. “I actually just lost my umbrella.”
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