No preemptive charge for stealing from dining halls, officials say

There is no charge built into dining plans to compensate for items students might steal from dining halls, contrary to popular student belief, Boston University officials said.

Dining Services spokesman Scott Rosario said in an email that though there is a ‘significant amount of plates, utensils, cups and napkin dispensers taken from the dining hall’ at the beginning of each semester, there is no charge incorporated for such theft in meal plan cost.

He did, however, say students hurt themselves when they steal because it in turn raises the price of dining plans.

‘The cost associated with replacing high theft items ultimately ends up affecting students through meal plan prices,’ he said.

Most students said despite officials claiming otherwise, they still think there is some sort of charge to their student account to cover the cost of silverware, dishes and food they might remove from the dining hall during the semester.

College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Ariel Stich said she heard from a friend who works for Dining Services that there is a $60 fee that students pay for items they might steal.

‘ ‘So if we jack plates and stuff, it’s OK, because they assume we’re going to steal,’ she said.

BU spokesman Colin Riley called the claim an ‘urban myth.’

CAS sophomore Emory Holland, who was eating with Stich in the Myles Standish dining hall, said she had never heard of the rumor.

Nora Conroy, a CAS sophomore, said she heard of a $60 charge last year from friends, but did not know how much truth the rumors had.

‘I think it could be possible, because people do take stuff,’ she said.

She said she did not see a problem with students taking cereal or snacks, and observed that nobody was stopping them from doing so. Stealing kitchen items, however, is a different matter.

‘I think if you’re taking plates and bowls out, that’s not justified,’ Conroy said.

Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences sophomore Ally Kathman said she has heard of a $50 charge from friends. She said she has never stolen anything from the dining halls, but if she did, she would bring it back.

BU does provide students who do steal kitchenware from the dining hall an opportunity to return the items to ‘amnesty’ bins that are placed outside of dining halls at the end of the year.

‘I don’t think people keep [stolen items] forever,’ Kathman said.

However, ‘the number of items returned is never close to the number of items that have been taken,’ Rosario said.

School of Management sophomore Andres Gallardo said he has heard the charge is ‘a couple hundred dollars’ from ‘not just one person, but a few people.’

If there was a charge, ‘I doubt [the administration] would actually say it,’ Gallardo said.

Amanda Motomochi, a CAS sophomore who works as a cashier at the Shelton dining hall, is the last line of defense against students stealing food and other items from the dining hall.

She said she ‘doesn’t really notice’ any theft from the dining hall and was not instructed what to do if she were to catch a student stealing from the dining hall.

‘Nobody’s really told us anything,’ she said.

School of Dental Medicine graduate student Pankaj Singhvi, said he has been working at the register at The Towers dining hall for just a month, and has not seen anyone stealing. He said if he were to see somebody stealing, he would ‘try to pull them back or probably call the manager.’

‘ ‘Our staff is asked to be cognizant of what is happening in the dining hall and will notify a manager if they believe someone might be stealing something from the dining hall,’ Rosario said.

Student Union President James Sappenfield said there have been no complaints from students, but said Union cabinet members had heard of the alleged fee.

Sappenfield said there needs to be clear disclosure of where student money is going, especially in the area of dining plans.

‘It would be somewhere where the administration could definitely be more transparent,’ Sappenfield said.