Students can power up with free portable phone charger rental service
Ariel Rafalian, outgoing Undergraduate Students Association Council Financial Supports commissioner, implemented a free phone charger rental service for students. (Jintak Han/Assistant Photo editor)
By Kalei Aricayos
May 17, 2017 8:12 p.m.
Students can rent portable phone chargers for free on campus starting Friday.
The chargers, which don’t have to be plugged into an outlet, can be rented for up to four hours from the College Library Instructional Computing Commons Labs at Powell Library and Young Research Library, said Ariel Rafalian, the outgoing Undergraduate Students Association Council Financial Support commissioner who created the service. There will be 25 portable chargers at each library.
“Students running low on battery can take the charger and start charging their phone while running to class, in class and around campus without being close to an outlet,” Rafalian said.
When Rafalian ran for office last spring, one of his platforms was, “Find Some Charge,” in which he promised to provide rentable phone chargers on campus for students.
“Don’t let your phone battery waste your time because time is money,” he said in his candidate statement last year.
Rafalian said he was inspired to create the service after noticing students constantly asking to borrow each other’s phone chargers while studying at the library.
“A lot of students don’t have backup phone chargers because they’re expensive,” he said. “A portable iPhone charger could cost students $30.”
His office purchased 50 chargers from Flux Chargers, a start-up created by UCLA students that now sells portable phone chargers in more than 90 countries.
[Related: Student startup Flux charged for future with portable battery]
“We had a good relationship throughout the year and we were able to work together to get the chargers at a good cost,” he said.
The money came from the office’s fundraisers and the Academic Success Referendum Fund. Rafalian declined to comment on the total cost of the chargers because he was able to purchase them at a lower cost than the retail price.
“The foundation to rent out different forms of technology at UCLA is there, so I knew (the service) would be easy to implement, save students money, help with academic success … and make life at UCLA easier,” he added.
Chris Mathe, a first-year psychobiology student, said he would think the option to rent chargers is useful if he visited the library more often or did not own a backup charger.
Sage Sims-Bleser, a third-year nursing student, said she thinks the service is a good idea.
“It makes sense, then people won’t be clogging outlets when (other) people are trying to charge their laptops and work on more important things,” Sims-Bleser said.
