Students who get caught on campus during a rainstorm now have an option other than walking around soaking wet.
An Umbrella Loan program was started at Thomas Cooper Library to provide students with a way to check out umbrellas.
It is a joint-effort between the university’s Student Government and the library staff.
According to Tucky Taylor, the head of the Circulation Department at Thomas Cooper, there are high hopes for this unique program even though the library was just able to get it within the last two weeks.
University students are now able to borrow umbrellas free of charge from the circulation desk at the library from 7:30 a.m. until 2 a.m. daily. These rentals last for a 24-hour period and must be returned to the circulation desk the day following their check-out.
Students need only to present a valid CarolinaCard in order to rent one of the 15 umbrellas the library has to offer.
“It’s not really a traditional library service,” Taylor said. “But we’re very good at checking things out so we’re going to give umbrellas a go to see if it works as good as it does with books.”
Failure to return the checked-out umbrella to the circulation desk will result in the student being charged for the replacement.
“This is just another great and creative service to help improve the lives of University of South Carolina students,” Press Secretary of Student Government Kaleigh Thomas said in a press release.
The program is in full-swing at Thomas Cooper and Taylor is looking forward to having students try it out.
“It’ll be interesting to see where it goes because nobody knows about it yet,” Taylor said. “It’s one of the great unknown secrets of the university.”