The University of Wyoming spent $10,000 to install charging stations on campus.
Jesse Ballard, manager and academic support of information technology, said that the charging station project was a result of a fund surplus that the Central Student Technology Committee (CTSC) ended up with last year.
The students of the CSTC proposed the charging stations and were authorized $10,000 to spend on the charging stations. Of the $10,000, $9553 has been spent on the charging stations. Ballard said that they purchased six power stands at $550 each, 38 power pyramids at $35 each, and 31 Charge All stations at $140 each.
He said that the charging stations have been well received enough that the college of engineering is looking to purchase charging stations as well. Ballard said that the power stations could potentially be stolen, but is not worried.
“At the university, theft has not been an issue hat we’ve had to deal with, the locations we place them at have fairly good monitoring and these locations are around some fairly valuable assets and they’ve been there for years and have never been stolen, although there’s always that possibility,” Ballard said.
He said that if theft is an issue they can replace the stations and if the issue is severe enough that there is a way to set up the stations to be theft proof. They chose not to theft proof the stations because of the cost.
Hunter Hebestreet, a senior studying political science, philosophy and religion, says that the charging stations were a great idea.
“I’m very fiscally conservative and I think this is great. I see what ASUW spends their money on and frankly, a lot of those programs cost more and don’t give back to the community,” Hebestreet said. “The charging stations will help me every time I’m in the library, every time I’m in the Union.”
He also said that the security of the charging stations should not be a big concern.
“You know, putting protective measures in place could cost more money, unless we see these things stolen. I don’t think we need to do that. I think that the student body is a pretty honest population and we won’t have to worry about that,” Hebestreet said.
He said that he is concerned that has not seen any of the “Charge All” stations considering there should be as many of these as the power pyramids.
“If they’re all over the place and I’m not seeing them, there’s a problem with that. I’m here three times a week and I haven’t seen them,” Hebestreet said.
