Good evening, everyone!
Tomorrow’s list of non-compliance reports will have close to a hundred names, and almost all of them are due to the mass confiscation of bags and items on the ground around the bag deposit boxes. For those who haven’t claimed their items yet, you may retrieve them first thing tomorrow so you can have your stuff when you go to class.
I’m sure this afternoon’s events caught many surprised, so let me explain.
The DO devised the bag deposit areas in order to provide students a structure to place their things as they momentarily attend to matters around campus. This is largely to solve the problems of scattered bags and belongings and of lost or stolen items. I am pleased to say that the bag deposit areas have achieved the first and minimized the second. Only 1 in 20 cases of lost items occurred in the bag deposit area, and most of these instances were actually confiscated things.
However, as the months wore on, the problem of obstruction emerged. Your things now extend well beyond the shelves. They now sprawl across the ground and have incredibly limited our walking space.
I know that we need more bag deposit areas, and I completely respect the need for everyone to have a place where they can leave their things as they head off to PE, CAT, or an outdoor class activity. Carrying the bags together with many volunteers awhile ago, we can see that the bags — especially for the 1st years — are agonizingly heavy.
It is for this reason that I have requested for more. They are now under construction and are on their way. Our carpentry staff cannot name a date yet, and so I will not promise any date to everyone as well. They have nonetheless been marked urgent.
It is also for this reason that I’ve looked the other way in the past months. However, as the feedback about obstruction grew and I sensed that the behavior can no longer be corrected through simple reason, I used other means to get my message across.
Hence, this afternoon’s flash confiscation. And it is only the first.
The next ones will remain completely unannounced. Completely random. And each instance caught will be equivalent to an NCR.
In the meantime, we make do with what we have. In the past I’ve reiterated that your lockers exist. There are shelves outside the library too. Note that you are not allowed to leave your things on top of public tables (front lobby, gazebos, cafeteria). My advice is to maximize your locker, and to bring your bag with you to PE.
The moment I have a date for the next set of bag deposit areas, I promise to tell you.
In the coming days I will be coordinating with the classes assigned to the front and back lobbies for the Pisay Linis campaign.
But every single one can do their part in making the little we have work. Start with these:
- When you deposit your stuff, maximize the slot. Don’t leave just one small item or book. Fill in the entire space.
- If you catch someone leaving just one small item, confiscate it and leave it with us in the Discipline Office.
- When the things begin to overflow and there are some empty slots available, take the initiative to put some of the items (big bags in particular) inside the free slots.
- Take the initiative to confiscate items when they’re just deposited on the ground. Leave it with us in the DO. Seeing a clean, open space actually dissuades other people from leaving their things on the ground.
That’s it! Thanks very much and I hope for a more meaningful and responsible cooperation from everyone.
