On Oct. 19, the Undergraduate Council of Students announced the opening of a new “lending library” of supplies, from which students can borrow outdoor recreational supplies and miscellaneous tools. The “UCS Pantry” is open on weekdays and aims to give students free access to useful, community-building tools.
Students can fill out a form to rent items such as frisbees, picnic blankets, sewing kits and more. Students will be contacted after form submission and will have a minimum of two hours to use the item after pickup before it must be returned to the pantry in the condition it was received in, the form reads.
“We want students to be able to build community in fun ways, whether that’s around a picnic blanket or during a game of soccer or football or whatever people might want to play on the green,” said Rachel El Grably ’28, student engagement director for the UCS.
“Community is very important to us, and it is part of UCS’s mission as a whole,” she added.
According to El Grably, the new initiative aims to build more trust between the UCS and the student body “so that UCS isn’t just some behind-the-scenes, black-box organization that (students) know nothing about.”
She hopes this trust will “set up the expectation that UCS is there to meet (students’) needs,” not just when it comes to smaller things like outdoor supplies, but also for larger policy initiatives.
The pantry items were purchased over the summer from Amazon, according to El Grably. She added that the items were mostly chosen by UCS President Ariel Shifrin ’27 based on “intuition” about student desires.
Students can also submit requests for additional materials they would like stocked in the pantry using the item check-out form.
The budget for the pantry is not yet concrete and will be determined based on student needs and requests, according to El Grably.
There is currently no collateral system in place to ensure items are returned to the pantry as such a system would undermine the trusting relationship that the project intends to foster, El Grably said. She added that the UCS does not want to put itself “in a position of punishment … with the student body.”
Evelyn Harrison ’29 believes that the pantry is “a good way to support the general Brown community, especially because it’s accessible for everyone,” she said. “Anything that brings people together and helps them have a good time, I think it’s a good idea.”
Being able to use items for over two hours could be useful for students, especially on days with nice weather, Harrison added.
The request form indicates that use of supplies for longer amounts of time will be considered on a “case-by-case basis.”
In a message to The Herald, El Grably wrote that the UCS plans to provide extensions beyond the two-hour time limit, “unless that item is in extremely high demand.” She added that the current time-limited policy is subject to change as the pantry grows and there is “less pressure on the availability of particular items.”
Ellie Donato ’29 is interested in renting pantry items to play sports and spend time on the Main Green with her friends, she said. “If they have volleyball or something or a Spikeball net that could be rented out that would be really fun.”
The pantry could also help make certain sports more accessible to all students, according to Neda Ravandi ’29. She explained that “there are a lot of sports or activities that are inaccessible” to students because they require expensive equipment, “so that sort of stuff would be good to have” in the pantry.
Tenzin Pagano ’28 raised concerns about maintaining the quality of the tools and ensuring that “people are held accountable if there happens to be any damage to the object.”
“We want to trust the student body as much as possible, and we do not want to instill a punitive culture,” El Grably wrote in a message to The Herald. The UCS may reconsider their no-collateral policy if more expensive or more fragile items are stocked, she added.
El Grably emphasized that the pantry is still evolving, and that the UCS will continue to adjust depending on student needs. “Done is better than perfect,” she said.
