Network for lost items

Stressed college students at GCSU often find themselves running from the library to class and back and have a tendency to forget things in between. Most of these objects end up in boxes or storerooms and are usually unclaimed even by the end of the semester.

Currently, Public Safety collects many misplaced items and has quite a collection of books, phones and thumb drives.

Cindy Potts, administrative assistant of the department explains what happens to the lost items.

“Items that are lost in other buildings on campus are kept for months and then brought at the end of the semester to Public Safety,” Potts said.

This creates a pile of assorted goods with little to no time to return them to students.

“(The items) do not have any sort of identification on them, so it is nearly impossible to get them back to the owner,” Potts said.
Marking books, bags and other commonly lost articles surely is the easiest way to ensure they get returned. Otherwise, the items are eventually discarded or given to a charitable cause. A simple investment in a Sharpie to write your name and phone number could save you the hassle of having to buy another expensive textbook or book bag.

Public Safety has offered their space to collect these objects in one central area. However, this will take the combined effort of the other school departments and buildings to compile all of the misplaced items for pickup every week. Other institutions such as Georgia Tech have successfully instituted a policy similar to this.

Public Safety is also open to alternate suggestions for the best way to handle this issue. They have suggested setting up a Web site listing the items and the location where they were found so that a student only has to refer to the list to find the most recent location of his or her lost items. The Colonnade is currently developing ways to run a weekly section online with information about lost and found items. So far, the newspaper is thinking about running a classified-esque section online where the GCSU community can post lost and found items that can be picked up at Public Safety. There is no set date as to when this portion would be in effect.

If you have lost any possessions already, you might try to contact Public Safety. They take note of all missing items and will call if they turn up. If you have any further suggestions, feel free to send them to the Colonnade or refer them to Public Safety to ensure we can find the best way to return lost items to the students.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 24 2008. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry