When Kait McFall, a rising sophomore in the College of General Studies, learned that Boston University would temporarily switch to remote learning, she was at home in California for Spring Recess.
“I was about to fly out and pack up my own room,” Kait McFall said, “and then California issued the stay-at-home order and I wasn’t allowed to fly.”
BU soon after announced students wouldn’t return to campus for the remainder of the semester, and offered an option to ship and store items left in dorms. Kait McFall said that for her, there’s been “no positive part” of the process.
“This process has been extremely emotionally draining for me, and having to deal with it on top of the pandemic,” Kait McFall said, “I think that hasn’t really been understood by any of the parties involved.”
McFall’s mother, Lisa McFall, said she was pleased the University made efforts to return students’ belongings, but she wished the process had been more thought-out.
“I really appreciate the generosity of the University in trying to tackle reuniting students with their possessions,” Lisa McFall said. “But for our family, the execution of it was obviously a disaster.”
Kait McFall identified the items she wanted to be shipped home using the BU Dorm Inventory app on April 17. On May 8, she emailed BU Housing because she hadn’t received any communication regarding her belongings.
“I have no idea whether or not my items have already packed and are on the way to me,” Kait McFall wrote in the email. “I am still in the dark with 0 information about what is happening to my stuff!”
BU Housing responded three days later, emailing McFall that she should contact the UPS Store for information about her belongings.
UPS delivered McFall’s belongings on May 14, but she hadn’t received one of her six packages and, according to her, $400 was missing from a jewelry box that had been shipped.
When she tried to file a police report, the Boston University Police Department officer initially wouldn’t take her statement, she said.
“[The dispatcher] refused to hear my statement and refused to listen,” Kait McFall said. “He told me to call my local police department because he believed the stealing occurred while being mailed to me, not when the people were packing my dorm.”
McFall said she thinks it seems more likely that her money was stolen by the people packing her room. While the dispatcher’s suggestion is possible, she said, that would entail someone opening her boxes and looking through her items while they were in transit.
“That seems a lot less plausible than just the people who were packing my stuff, when they were packing it, going through it,” McFall said.
“I had to work around [the dispatcher] and ask to talk to someone else besides him,” McFall said. “Eventually, they did take down my report and have been helpful since then, but it was kind of a rocky start to the whole process.”
Lisa McFall said she was disappointed BUPD didn’t investigate the theft more.
“I feel a little dismayed at the lack of attempt to follow up with a packing company,” Lisa McFall said. “They know who packed my daughter’s room, and the police didn’t even make an attempt to question the people who packed the room.”
While some of the boxes contained paper for padding, others did not. Some fragile items in the boxes that did arrive were packed without protective materials, Kait McFall said, which caused a glass jar in one of her boxes to break.
“It was smashed in the box, and it had sand in it,” Kait McFall said. “The sand got over everything, all of my belongings, and it still is leaking out of the box.”
Without protective materials, the broken glass was inevitable, her mother said.
“There was no question they were going to break,” Lisa McFall said. “It looks more like how you would pack a box if you were moving it a short distance to be stored, so I don’t know if they really gave any thought to the difference.”
The $300 UPS initially offered for the box they lost during shipping was not enough to cover the cost of her items, Kait McFall said.
“$300 in insurance to me doesn’t feel like just compensation,” she said, “for not only just the actual monetary value of the items but for the emotional stress that I’ve been going through because of this.”
Kait McFall said she may receive a second insurance claim of $600. She said this amount seems low, but she understands because of the unique circumstances of the pandemic.
“I do understand this is a pandemic and this was a really bad situation that everyone’s faced with,” McFall said. “Then again, I think that the way that situation was handled was not done in a way that was thinking of the students.”
Paul Riel, associate vice president of BU Auxiliary Services, wrote in an email that students were offered an insurance contract stipulating $100 to be given per box.
Lisa McFall said she expects many other students’ items were also lost or damaged.
“I have a feeling it’s the tip of the iceberg for the problems that the University is going to have when kids start getting their boxes or getting out of storage,” she said.
BU Spokesperson Colin Riley wrote in an email that this situation is the first of its kind.
“All of the professional contractors, University staff and supervisors involved in handling students’ personal property are being extremely diligent and respectful,” Riley wrote. “We have never had a situation such as this before, and we’re continuing the labor-intensive work to ensure students are reunited with their personal belongings according to schedule.”
Kait McFall said once her story was posted on the BU Gigs Instagram page, other students began speaking out about problems they also experienced with the shipping and storage process. She said she is “definitely not alone with this.”
Juliana Pinnick, a rising sophomore in CGS, was one of these students. She said she wishes there was more communication from BU about when her belongings will arrive since she filled out BU’s room inventory survey in March.
“I have no idea when to expect my things,” Pinnick said. “I haven’t even received an email that my things have been shipped.”
