SA, RUPD take strides with collaboration

3/13/08 7:00pm

Rice University Police Department caused quite a stir when it implemented its laptop-retrieving policy at the beginning of last semester - in which officers picked up items left unattended within Fondren Library and stored them at police headquarters - to prevent thefts from occurring. But many students reacted negatively to this, saying that RUPD did not inform students when they recovered their items or where they were stored.At the present time, Rice does not have a centralized lost-and-found location. If someone were to lose an item, he or she would have to check many different lost-and-found locations such as the ones in Fondren Library, RUPD headquarters and Rice Memorial Center.

But the Student Association and RUPD have been working on an online lost-and-found database in which students can look for missing items, add an entry for a found item or see if RUPD retrieved their item (See story, page 1). In about two weeks, the database - which can be accessed via the SA's Web site at sa.rice.edu - will be fully functional.

We applaud the SA and RUPD for listening to students and working together to address what has become a major student issue, and we hope that such collaboration continues in the future. For the best campus security, positive and frequent interaction between students and RUPD is crucial, and this acknowledgement by officers and students is a big step in the right direction.

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