The Richland Campus lost and found is full of unclaimed items that seem to have been forgotten, and as the Office of Student Life and Engagement prepares to clean out the bins, they urge students and staff alike to come to claim their items.
“The system is usually that people bring us stuff. It could be the campus police, it could be a student who says “I found this in the hall.” Jonathan White, OSL staff said. “And we have a log that we check everything into, where we keep information like when and where it was found, as well as a brief description. That way when someone comes in like, ‘Hey, I lost my wallet,’ or ‘I lost my phone,’ we’ll look in our log and ask, ‘When did you lose it?’ or ‘Where?’ Because we keep that information when people bring it in.”
One important thing to remember when looking for your lost items is that the Office of Student Life cannot keep any containers with perishables or substances that may create biohazards.
“So if it’s a water bottle, a lunch box, or whatever, that stuff is only there for the day it was found, and then it gets tossed. So, if you come in looking for your Hydro-Flask, its gone,” Student Engagement Coordinator Dara Eason said.
As some are probably wondering, what happens to unclaimed items once the bins are cleaned out? Useful and good condition items are donated to women shelters all around the city. Take phones for example. “When women who are, say, victims of domestic violence end up at these shelters, sometimes they need essentials like phones,” White said. “So we partner with these women’s shelters to provide them with some of the electronics,” he said.
And for items that students don’t want to lose, the final date to pick up items will be Feb. 1. Those looking for lost items should head to the Office of Student Life and Engagement (E040), give them a rough date of when the item was lost, as well a description of the item, and they will look for it in their records.
