In your daily update of ceramic news, the University is set to start charging for use of cup libraries, with borrowers paying $1 to get a cup and on returning it will get $1 off their next coffee purchase.
You may have seen the colourful, quirky cup libraries around campus, looking like something Wes Anderson would finger bang your grandma with and use the mug to collect her juices. Cup libraries are a blossoming part of liberal agenda, but are traditionally free in order to encourage use - such is the case with Canterbury University, the golden standard of the vessel world. The libraries at Otago will be free for a fortnight from this Monday, until the capitalist switch is set to take place.
The switch comes as three campus cafes, St. David’s cafe, Te Mātiti and The Staff Club, move to abandon single-use disposable cups from Monday, with the rest of the University set to follow. Whilst this is all well and good, it’s unclear why the charge for the cup library needs to go alongside this new environmentally friendly initiative. University of Otago Campus and Collegiate Life Services Director James Lindsay says that the reason for the bond is “to encourage customers to bring their own cups, and if they have borrowed a cup, to bring it back.”
The controversial move has divided students, with some welcoming the charge as a way to pay for washing costs and replacement cups. However, there has been criticism from others for discouraging the use of cup libraries, and see the added cost as an attack on their personal liberties.
On more positive news, the University is set to do a promotion on keep cups, which, for the next fortnight, will only cost students $6.50 for a University Cup and coffee. Keep cups are a good alternative if you wish to stay out of the murky waters of political cup library drama. Stay safe everyone, these are dark times.