Don’t buy – borrow.
Being a college student can get expensive, and it seems like every day, something new is trying to drain your wallet. Whether it’s food, clothes, toiletries, or other miscellaneous items, I can relate. How can you free up some of your budget? My advice is: don’t buy, borrow instead! I’d like to showcase an alphabetized list of the many borrowable resources for students at UC Berkeley.
Art and decor
Art for decor is made available to students by the UC Berkeley Library’s Graphic Arts Loan Collection (GALC), which offers framed, original lithographs, etchings, and woodblock prints for loan. Students can borrow up to two prints for free each academic year, and reservations open in August for the fall semester and January for the spring. If you’re planning out your dorm or apartment decor, consider some of GALC’s fine art — just don’t forget to return them by the end of the semester.
If you’re looking to make art of your own, the ASUC Publications and Media Board’s Equipment Checkout Program is a free resource for members of registered Publication and Media organizations to check out filming, audio, lighting, and other media equipment. You can browse through the program’s equipment inventory to find anything you need for production. As long as you are on the CalLink roster of an active Publication and Media registered student organization, this equipment is free and available to you.
“Black Woman” (Model Margot Jefferson) by Sigmund Abeles, available for loan through the GALC.
Clothing
If you’re in need of the perfect outfit for an upcoming interview, conference, or other occasion, the Center For Access to Engineering Excellence (CAEE) Lending Library’s Success Closet offers a selection of blazers, dress pants, dress shirts, and other professional attire completely free to borrow. The library’s clothing catalog is available to view online, and you can borrow whatever clothing you need by simply visiting the CAEE front desk in the Grimes Engineering Center.
When graduation season comes around, instead of buying your graduation gown, the Educational Opportunity Program’s Graduation Gown Lending Program can provide you with free graduation gown rental. You can save yourself the cost of a gown, celebrate the climax of your college career with extra money in your pocket, and return it for the next person in need to use.
Food
When the price of eating out gets too high, the Basic Needs Center (BNC) has got you covered. The BNC runs the Food Pantry, a food program designed to meet the short-term, immediate food needs of UC Berkeley students. Students can visit bNorth, the lower level of MLK Jr. Student Union, and come by up to once per week, and shop through a food pantry where everything is free!
The Basic Needs Center’s Food Pantry check-In desk on the first floor of the MLK Student Union. Photo courtesy of the Basic Needs Center.
Sports
For the athletes out there, free equipment and opportunities are available for you to get your sporting on. With your Cal 1 Card, sports equipment can be freely rented out at the Recreational Sports Facility (RSF) on Bancroft Way. Equipment may only be used within the RSF premises, but includes all kinds of balls, rackets, paddles, and climbing shoes. Additionally, students can access free rentals at the Aquatic Center at the Berkeley Marina for free kayaks, paddleboards, and even sailboats.
If you’re looking to take your sporting adventures to the next level, Berkeley Recreation & Wellbeing Adventures offers discounted rentals for kayaks, stand-up paddleboards, and windsurfing gear, as well as classes and certifications for specialty sports — they can teach you to sail for free! The Adventures program also allows you to experience the beauty of the Bay Area for yourself, with both self-guided adventures and custom events you can personally book.
For gaming, the Cal Esports Community Center offers esports gaming equipment for students, operating on an in-house usage model. Students can purchase a pass for either a day, week, semester, or year. Gaming PCs, consoles, and peripherals — including keyboards, mice, headsets, controllers — are available for open play on-site with your Cal 1 Card, but they do not offer take-home equipment checkouts.
Students playing quidditch together on the Memorial Glade with free sports equipment, courtesy of the UC Berkeley Gallery.
Tech
When it comes to your tech equipment needs, there are a variety of ways to borrow the otherwise expensive hardware you’ll need to be a successful student. The best lending option for you largely depends on where you’ll want to use it.
The Student Technology Equity Program provides long-term loans of technology hardware — including laptops, i-clickers, headphones, etc. — to undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. These loans are need-based and free, and are best fit for students who’d like to take their equipment with them to places such as their dorm, cafes, and libraries.
For laptops in particular, the UC Berkeley Library’s Equipment Lending Program offers short-term loans of Dell Latitude, Lenovo ThinkPad, and MacBook Air laptops from four hours to 14 days. All corresponding cables and adapters are also available for short-term loan, as well as electronic resources such as headphones, DVD players, calculators, and portable monitors. This program can work well for you if you maybe confine your working space to the library, though with loans on the longer side of the two-week range, you can take equipment with you.
On-demand, free computing is available from Monday to Saturday at the Open Computing Facility (OCF) in 171 MLK Student Union. The OCF provides entirely free computer use, along with scanners and free printing up to 200 pages per semester. If your task or assignment can be completed entirely at the OCF or involves printing, borrowing the equipment at the OCF is a great cost-free option.
Two students studying intensely with a notebook and, of course, a laptop at Golden Bear Café. Photo from the UC Berkeley Gallery.
Tools
There are two major tool-lenders for UC Berkeley students: the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation and Berkeley Public Library.
Through the Jacobs Institute’s tool lending program, students are provided with free access to otherwise costly tools and hardware. These tools are available for UC Berkeley affiliates — which includes all undergraduate students — to check out tools for two-week sessions, after which they must be promptly returned. The program offers tools including scissors, X-Acto blades, pliers, sandpaper, dike cutters, Arduino prototyping boards, and wrenches.
In addition, the Berkeley Public Library offers tool lending through its extensive Tool Lending Library. Residents of the city of Berkeley over the age of 18 can borrow from the library, which means most UC Berkeley students are eligible to borrow from its immense catalog of tools for things like woodworking, cooking, or gardening.
Cutting your costs on campus
While classes, clubs, and commitments are ubiquitous to the college experience, you can save yourself some of the financial burden by opting not to buy, but borrow. As I compiled this list, I realized that things I’d thought were unavoidable costs of college — the laptop for which I paid $1,000, the suit that cost me $150 — can be borrowed and used entirely for free if you take advantage of the right resources. Cutting costs doesn’t have to mean cutting corners for a full college experience. That complete college experience is waiting for you — you just have to grasp it, or should I say, borrow it.
Joseph Burney, Class of 2029, is majoring in philosophy and minoring in journalism. Cover photo courtesy of the Berkeley Gallery.
Want more?
- Find the friends and community you’ll spend the semester with.
- Discover the “blue heart” clubs that are right for your fall semester.
- Check out these free creative resources to dig into your creativity.