8
Mondav. March 2. 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Number of reported thefts increases
Continued from p. 1
was reported stolen in 1986, but only $4.652 was recovered, KU police records show. Acts of vandalism added $6.922 to the office's bill.
Records show that Oliver has had the most reported cases of theft and vandalism in every year since 1984. In 1986, the hall reported 22 cases involving property crimes. The value of stolen items was $2.547, of which only $236 was recovered. Property damage amounted to $2.538.
Oliver has always had an image of being the hall where all the fun takes place, Stoner said. As a result, it tends to attract the type of resident who may be more likely to damage housing property as a prank.
Lewis Hall reported only one case involving a property crime. Property
The incidence of property crimes in Lewis is low probably because the building is relatively new and resists pride in its appearance. Customer said.
For every case that is reported to KU police, several are dealt with internally by housing units. Usually those cases involve residents who are caught in the act of stealing or damaging property. Stoner said.
The residents are told to pay for the damaged property or face prosecution.
But, Stoner said, "Even when damages are recovered, you never recover the full amount. Because of depreciation, we don't collect full value. We only collect the current value of the property."
Residents may not know it, but they are paying for hall theft and vandalism before such incidents occur.
occur.
In determining contract costs for housing units, the housing office anticipates that expenditures will have to be made to replace stolen or damaged property. Each student contributes about $5 of their yearly expenditure fee toward those expenditures. Steve said.
Fred McEilenhe, director of residential programs, said stolen property sometimes didn't leave the building. In residence halls, for example, residents often take lounge furniture into their rooms. Since hall staff are not permitted to search rooms, the chance of discovering such thefts is small.
"I view it as a frustrating problem," he said. "We want the furniture where it belongs. It's frustrating people deprive other people of its use.
Hall staff tries to recover items by posting notices that they will be making routine safety checks of the rooms. And although staff members only make routine safety checks and do not actually search rooms, the missing property often returns to hall lounges. McElhennie said.
"When we find we have a significant amount of lounge furniture missing, we put up a sign that we will be
conducting a routine room check,
or assign the furniture is
returned," he said.
Most incidents involving theft and vandalism in the housing units are committed thoughtlessly by residents who are unaware of the consequences of their acts, said Sgt. John Brothers, KU police spokesman.
"They have an extended sense of personal property because they feel they're paying to stay there. That accounts for some of the thefts," he said.
Stoner said that the only way to curb theft and vandalism was to get residents involved in efforts to stop it.
"You've just got to make a better PR effort and make students realize that it's money out of their own pockets," he said.
One residence hall has started a program that is helping residents realize just what. Residents and the staff of McCollum Hall have formed Organization called Residents Against Area Damage to curb hall vandalism.
The group encourages residents to report incidents by offering a $50 reward. The office of residential programs pays half the reward money and the hall pays the other half
Since the group was started in the
fall, vandalism in McColium has declined, said Rashid Malik, Bangladesh graduate student, academic of McColium and a member of the group.
"If we had eight vandalism acts last semester, we only have one every two weeks now," Malik said. "That's a significant change."
"The money we save can be used constructively. We can arrange for guest speakers. We can go for field visits. We can expand our tutoring facilities."
Alan Wendell, resident director of Oliver, said. "The best defense is not armed guards, it's getting people to care.
No other hall has formed a staff-resident anti-vandalism group, but many hall directors agree that the idea is sound.
"If all 600 people in the building said, 'You can't steal that,' the computer would not have gone. Because somebody in the building probably did see the computer go. You can be sure of that."
MElhenie said, "If it becomes acceptable to report other people, it will be a breakthrough. Once that atmosphere is created, we're in a better position to control vandalism and temporary deprivation of property."
"It's essentially self-policing."
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