It’s fair to assume that everyone on the Coral Gables campus has been affected by the assault of nasty weather this week, setting the mood for a gloomy Valentine’s Day. Scanning across any given classroom, you can see that attendance is down and the rest of the student body actually in attendance is rockin’ their stylish new look for upcoming spring break wet T-shirt competitions.
We offer a solution: Official UM umbrella loaning stations located at the entrances of each building on campus. Face it – Suntan U is not always Suntan U.
The setup would be similar to the bike-loan system in Paris. Replace a bicycle rack for an umbrella rack and you have the right idea. Students and faculty would swipe their Cane Cards at the rack to get an umbrella on loan and make their way to a particular destination, be it the library, the UC or dorms. Upon arrival, the borrower would drop it off at the rack at their next location.
To keep people from stealing the umbrellas, they will have a simple microchip inside that registers the umbrella to its user and clears them when it is returned. If the umbrella is not returned, borrowers are charged a fee.
So the next time it rains and you just happen to leave your umbrella in the car, you’d be covered – literally.