HSA to Offer Storage

Leaving dishes, futons and winter clothes in cramped basement rooms may no longer be a staple of summer storage at Harvard.

Harvard Student Agencies (HSA) will launch a new service May 19 for students seeking an alternative to House storage.

During the last week of final exams, students will be able to leave small, medium, large or “colossal” boxes with HSA representatives at one of seven campus drop-off locations. Items will be stored in HSA facilities over the summer, for prices ranging from about $15 to $26 per item.

The new service comes less than a year after student complaints about items lost or damaged in House storage flooded many House open e-mail lists.

But according to HSA Storage Manager Ed W. Naim ’04, students had suggested HSA-sponsored storage in the past.

“We had been thinking about it before [the complaints],” Naim said. Naim credits College administrators and Facility Maintenance Operations staffers with helping HSA.

Though students will have to pay for the new service, Naim said HSA’s service is the cheapest option in the Boston area.

But money isn’t the only thing that distinguishes the HSA service from House storage, he said.

Rather than having to wait until they can find their own boxes and futons underneath the crush of other people’s storage, students will be able to choose specific drop-off and pick-up times.

And all items stored with HSA are automatically insured up to $300.

Naim also pointed out that the new storage option will be particularly useful for first-years.

“They could drop their things off in the Yard [in the spring] and then pick it up in the Quad [in the fall],” he said.

Mae Bunagan ’06 said she will take advantage of the service when she moves from Wigglesworth Hall to Mather House.

“I think it’s a great idea, especially since they deliver,” she said. “I was wondering how I was going to move my stuff.”