The vast majority of Allegheny students hold some sort of work study job.

Whether it is in Brooks, as a TA, or in an office, you can guarantee that a) we are doing the “grunt” work and b) it is not what we are paying $42,000 to do.

I work in the Media Services department at the library, and, rather than being frustrated with my position, I am frustrated with my peers.

There is a substantial amount of camera, camcorder, tripod, and microphone equipment available to any Allegheny student in addition to the shelves full of equipment for particular majors (Communication Arts, Art Students, etc.).

When this equipment is loaned out, it is done so with the hope that we will take care of it like it is our own. After all, we are the ones who have paid the tuition costs that enable us to have all of these resources.

However, when the equipment comes back, the cords are tangled up in each other, the cameras are not put back properly, occasionally manual and / or instruction CDs are missing, and things are generally disheveled.

I know that this doesn’t sound like a big deal, but when the equipment gets loaned out in the volume that ours does, the wiring in the cords will quickly deteriorate and break.

Guess how the college pays to replace the old equipment? More tuition money.

Without the instructions, the next students won’t know how to use the equipment. When everything is tangled, we do our best to go through and organize all the pieces, but with the amount of equipment we have we can’t always take care of it before it circulates back out again, leaving the next Allegheny student to deal with the previous person’s mess.

Also, in regards to the previous person’s mess, just before Winter Break some equipment was stolen from the General Campus section.

I know one person out there must feel pretty good about themselves, but the fact is that the other 2,099 students were unable to take out some valuable media for the next month and a half.

We tried to get the new cameras in place as fast as possible, but with the volume of loans there were undoubtedly some people who were unable to get something out because one person wanted an early Christmas present.

Not only was it an inconvenience to the other students, but what we may not realize is that more of our tuition money is replacing those cameras and camcorders. We, as a collective whole, have given someone an undeserved present.

Whoever you are out there, it’s not too late to give it back. Please.

We, the students at Allegheny, may not realize how much of an effect our hasty camera–packing jobs have in regards to other students and long–term problems. I know that due dates for equipment come quick and that we all rush to get the cameras back in time.

But the two minutes that you take to put the cords back in order is a welcome relief for the following students, and may just prolong the life of the expensive camera cords for which we have paid.