Lost and Foundered

Each year the numerous lost-and-found depots around the University turn their pockets inside-out, and give unclaimed items to charity. The accumulation of uncalled-for articles is considerable--and doubly uncalled-for, since much of the yearly harvest can be ascribed to the over-abundance of collection offices. The student who has lost something hardly knows where to go to find it.

Take the case of the false teeth. A while back, somebody lost a set of dentures in the College area, and never turned up at the right place to claim them. He could have gone to a Lehman Hall office, or the Union, or all the Houses, or any of a considerable number of other places. But if he didn't hit the right one in the first few attempts--and he evidently didn't--it would have been more sensible for him to buy some new choppers.

Those teeth, of course, are museum pieces; such things don't get lost every day. But plenty of textbooks, coats, overshoes, and other pedestrian items pop up in one place or another during the year, and don't get claimed. The several depositories hold lost articles for a sufficient period of time, but that alone doesn't insure a competent lost-and-found system. The loser should have every chance to pick up his property; he can't do that unless he knows where to look for it.

It seems simple enough for the administration to set up one central collecting agency, and junk the host of regional depots that make the job of tracking down missing property worthy of cloak-and-dagger outfit. Such a move would not only be a blessing for the careless undergraduates, but sensible and efficient from an administrative point of view.