“l am looking for my wallet,” “l am looking for my ring, and it is important to me.” These phrases can often be seen at the entrances of public restrooms or on notice boards in the buildings of each department. Everyone may have had an experience losing something at some time in their university life. No matter who you are, losing something important to you is inconvenient, especially if you use that thing a lot. Moreover, it is not easy to find lost items on our large campus. The problem for students is made even worse due to the lack of an organized lost and found system at our university.
The current system directs students to report lost items at the One Stop Service Center. However, the present situation is that only the property that is actually lost in the center gets reported directly to the center.
Even the distribution of information about lost and found items at the center is lacking. For example, a freshman in the School of Chinese Language and Culture reported her lost item to the administration department of that college and not to the center. She is not alone, most students do not report to the center, and they report to the administration departments of their respective colleges. The most frequently used tool for students to find lost property is the bulletin board on the school homepage. However, even though there are many postings regarding lost items there are usually very few comments or suggestions to be found.
The current situation needs to be resolved because as it stands now students complain that there is no universal system for finding lost items, and the university feels that students don’t make a great enough effort within the current system to find their lost items. The end result is that our lost and valuable possessions fall into the campus maze and we are likely to never see them again.