A storage service owned and operated by students will get national backing and a new name when students pack up their boxes at the end of Spring Quarter.
The owners of Student Solutions, a student-run company that provides summer storage for Northwestern students, sold the company last year to Collegeboxes, a national storage company that serves about 40 other universities.
The change in ownership will not fundamentally alter the company’s service or change prices, said Andrew Stone, co-director of Student Solutions.
But he said the sale will cost between 30 and 50 students part-time work in June, when Collegeboxes uses already-hired movers to pick up boxes instead of employing students to do the job.
“Basically, Collegeboxes will be run exactly as Student Solutions was,” said Stone, a Weinberg junior. “Students will find that it’s not that big a deal. It’ll still be student-run, student-directed and student-managed.”
To alert NU students to the name change, Collegeboxes’ three campus directors are launching a campus advertising campaign this week. Stone said they plan to post between 150 and 200 fliers per week.
The company likely will spend eight days passing out leaflets at The Rock, compared with two days last year. Stone said the company also plans to send “transition” letters to parents informing them of the change, he said.
“We had a lot of parent trust with Student Solutions,” he said. “We’re worried there will be some confusion on the parent side with Collegeboxes. We want to let them know we’re the same operation under a different name.”
After a “hazy” beginning 10 years ago, Student Solutions has expanded its customer base from 20 customers to more than 700, said Matt Winters, a director of the company last year.
Although Winters called the sale “profitable” for the student owners, he said it will give the local company the benefit of a strong national backing.
“We would not have gotten involved with another company if we didn’t think it was beneficial to the student body,” said Winters, a Weinberg senior. “I thought it was a good decision for everyone involved.”
Before the sale, Student Solutions picked up students’ boxes from designated sites around campus and either put them into storage or shipped them home, Winters said. Last year students could place their order online and pay with a credit card.
Although the business does not take up much time during the year, Winters said, Student Solutions directors work nearly 120 hours a week during Spring Quarter Finals Week and New Student Week in the fall.
