The University of Connecticut Undergraduate Student Government is partnering with UConn brand partnerships, the UConn Career Center and Goodwill to reopen their free professional clothing closet on Sept. 29, according to USG Director of External Affairs Olivia Eshoo.
The closet, located on the second floor of the UConn Bookstore, will have a pop-up design. The hours will coincide with dates students needed clothing the most according to a Sept. 17 USG Senate report including the career fairs — which will run from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1 in the Student Union — and popular weeks for internship interviews. The closet is only open for undergraduate Storrs students.
Eshoo said that the closet works to provide students with professional clothes in an affordable, sustainable way.
“When we had the opportunity to kind of work with Goodwill to provide students free clothes, it was kind of a twofold of our mission,” Eshoo said. “It gets students the clothing they need to be successful in the professional world, and obviously it also helps promote sustainability in the clothing world.”
The closet will feature hundreds of items donated by Goodwill, including suit jackets, dresses, skirts, pants, tops, ties and other accessories, the report says. USG is also working with the Career Center to solicit donations from alumni and professors, according to Eshoo.
This semester, USG will be implementing a credit system to purchase items instead of allowing students to pick out three items from the closet throughout the semester, Eshoo said. Every semester, students will automatically have 11 credits connected to their UConn ID.
“Everything’s kind of worth different values, like a suit jacket versus a tie,” Eshoo said. “We based it on [that] you can use 11 credits to get a full suit. Suit jackets and dresses will be five credits. Pants and skirts will be three, tops [are] two and then ties and any other accessories we may provide will be one.”
To redeem their credits, students must bring their UConn ID or their Peoplesoft number to the closet.
Eshoo said the credits don’t have to be used in one visit. Students can use some of their credits and then wait for restocks, which USG will announce on their Instagram page.
During the closet’s first semester on campus, 326 students got free professional clothing, Eshoo said. When each student was polled after using the closet, 99% of them said that they would like to see a permanent version of the closet on campus.
Eshoo said that USG is in the final stages of a three-year contract for a permanent clothing closet. In the meantime, Eshoo says they will continue doing pop-ups when students need professional clothing the most.
The clothing closet will be open from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1, Oct. 13-16 and Nov. 3-6 from 12-4 p.m., Eshoo said. The closet may open on additional dates based on student needs.
“We’re kind of just trying to figure out when students need clothing most, so we can prioritize our resources going to those times,” Eshoo said.
Updates on the closet’s hours can be found on USG’s Instagram page, @usguconn.