 "Photo: PREFACE PHOTO/Jenn Zellers")
IU South Bend’s once-a-semester program of Food For Fines at the Schurz Library has just begun.
Running through May 7, this program provides an amnesty for stressed students with overdue books, allowing them to trade non-perishable food items for accrued fines.
According to the program coordinator and Circulation Supervisor Kathy Plodowski, this successful program has been running for about 10 years, and is a great opportunity to give students the chance to alleviate the fines and deal with a real need for food in the community.
“If students are strapped they can bring in Ramen noodles, Jell-o packets, Kool-aid; the only restriction is the food has to be non-perishable,” said Plodowski.
Each item brought in reduces the student’s fine debt by one dollar, but only for fines accrued on books borrowed from the IUSB campus library.
“If they borrowed from another IU library using interlibrary loan, this program doesn’t apply to those fines,” said Plodowski.’
Other universities also do amnesty days, however Plodowski chose this type of amnesty so that IUSB could give back to the community.
“We actually lose revenue with this program, but it really meets a community need,” said Plodowski.
A few more things she would like students to keep in mind: the donations do not apply toward damaged items or replacement fines, and no matter how good your intentions, tofu is perishable.
