After a long morning of classes, you head off to Brandies and patiently wait in the line to swipe your card and receive lunch. But when it’s your turn to swipe, you reach into your pocket and come out empty-handed.
Frantically you scatter through your backpack, and alas, still no card. So you retrace your steps and due to futile attempts you are locked out of every building on campus. You cannot receive any meals and forget about getting into your door room without being yelled at my the desk worker. You’ve lost something on campus, and have no idea where to look.
“Creighton University is much larger than people would realize. I guess we have about 74 buildings and 132 acres of property from 32nd St. down to 16th St. So many of those buildings are unique to themselves and have different systems of lost and founds,” said Rick McAuliffe, director of Public Safety.
Creighton University has never had a centralized system for lost and founds. However, campus is rapidly expanding and needs to create a lost and found system that will function properly for the campus’ ever growing needs, according to Arts & Sciences sophomore Alejandro Echeverri.
“One time, I lost my student ID card and had no idea where to look for it. So the next day I called Public Safety, and luckily they had it there. I think Public Safety would be a good place to have a centralized lost and found,” Echeverri said.
McAuliffe said, “it would take a lot of time and energy” to create a centralized lost and found on campus, and it “might be too hard to do right now.”
Each building on campus has its own organization system for the lost and found. In the Skutt Student Center, students are able to ask the information desk for lost and found items. The information desk takes lost and found items that are turned in and then catalogs them in a binder that is located at the desk, said Joanne Kim, third-year Pharmacy student.
“We get a lot of debit cards, keys, student IDs and textbooks in the Student Center. I usually have someone ask me about lost and found items a handful of times each month while I am working at the information desk,” Kim said.
But what happens if you have no idea where to begin to look for something you have lost? Where would you even begin to start?
“Campus is so large that when I lost my phone and student ID, I had no idea where to start for looking for them,” said Mena Ebrahiem, Arts & Sciences junior. “Luckily, my RA had my ID and my friend had my phone. However, I think it would be a good idea if Public Safety had a localized lost and found. Then everyone would know exactly where to check for lost and found items.”
On a daily basis, dozens of students will search for lost items, but often they do not know where to search for their possessions.
“Sometimes we’ll have cell phones here for months, some students must not care too much about them,” McAuliffe said.
However, this might just be a problem of not knowing where to look for lost and found items on campus.
“I wish there was a centralized lost and found on campus. That would make looking for things I’ve lost so much easier and less stressful,” Echeverri said.
But the question is how or will Creighton create a centralized lost and found for the campus’ ever expanding needs?
“I feel that the best solution to this problem is to not let the horse out of the gate, so people should keep better track of their things,” McAuliffe said.
From misplacing your car keys to leaving behind a textbook, students, faculty and staff often misplace something on accident.
“I feel that creating a centralized lost and found would benefit campus. Then people would know where to go when they misplaced something. Maybe each building could collect their lost and found items and then send them to the public safety office every night,” Echeverri said.