Open Letter to Students About Lockers...

[Polenicus]

This is just a friendly reminder to all of the students out there.

Your semester is about to begin, and I know a lot of you are eager to go out and stake out your locker. You'll pay for your tags and get a spot in the right place... I know the vast majority of you get this right, which makes our time over the semester easier. You may forget your combination, or lock your keys inside... that's cool, we don't mind cutting the occasional lock.

However, we seem to have a communication failure when it comes to the END of the semester. Some of you end up leaving your stuff behind... that I can actually deal with. People are going to end up doing that... and if we just had to deal with the people who did that, the problem wouldn't be so severe.

But, it appears the vast majority of you do, in fact, read those notices about clearing your locker. You do, in fact, dutifully come in on your last day, open your locker, and clean out all your stuff. You then lock up your locker, and go home for the summer.

Read that last bit again.

Your locker rental is until the end of the semester. When the semester is over, that locker is NO LONGER YOURS. I have to assume you understand that on some level, because you clean the things out dutifully. But then you LOCK them with YOUR lock, one we neither have keys nor combination for.

This requires that we, in security, undertake the MASSIVE task of cutting EVERY LOCK in the campus in preparation for the new semester. I have personally participated in the cutting of over TWO HUNDRED locks in the last four days ALONE. This consists of the locks in a SINGLE BUILDING, and we're not even done yet. It doesn't help that we weren't given the green light to start until just last week, when the summer semester ended.

This is a huge task. We need to get approval from the program head responsible for that bank of lockers, document each one, and recover and catalogue any crap you leave behind. Not to mention I've strained my arms a couple of times trying to cut off those damn burly locks you sometimes use with the dull crappy bolt cutters we have. And for what? To find an empty locker.

TAKE YOUR GODDAMNED LOCK OFF WHEN YOU'RE DONE FOR THE YEAR!!!

We've cleared who BANKS of lockers like this. WHY do you do this? Every year, you come back, have to buy a new lock and get a new tag. And then at the end of every year, we have to cut off your goddamn lock, because for some bizarre reason you decide to leave it. If you don't want it, leave it unlocked then! Or better yet, throw it in the trash!

By the time the fall semester starts, we will have done well over a thousand locker cuts this summer. That's RETARDED.

[portia911]

Ha ha ha! Sorry. I had a visual

[Chanlin]

I see a simple solution. Document and bill anyone who leaves a lock behind

Of course I doubt that will happen but its nice to dream right.

[powerboy]

We get that also. People that will move out but leaves their units locked. They are suppose to let us know ten days before hand, if they are going to move out. If they leave a lock on the unit after they moved out and us not knowing that they had moved out, will be charged. But yet, we get some people who will bitch and moan about it.

Since we do need the empty units for new customers, and the move outs didn't let us know. We will charge them for the other month.

[mattm04]

I say post a notice, since people are stupid and can not think, to not lock the lockers and if you do a, say, $10-$20 charge to cut a lock plus a cleaning change if applicable will be enforced.

[FuzzyKitten99]

I remember they did the charge for cutting locks in high school. You bring your own lock, but you were assigned a locker. At the end of the year, if you didn't clean it out and/or take your lock, you were charged a cleaning fee of $20, and a lock cutting fee of $30. I actually know about some people who really did get charged for either one or both.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Instead of bolt cutters, try asking your department for a dremel tool or something similar. At a self Storage place they use one of those since the woman who run/owns it can't use bolt cutters (really small woman with no upper body strength).

Dremel tool with a grinding attachment eats through most locks pretty well.

M

[Emrld]

Where I went to school . . . the lockers had locks built onto them.
No additional lock by students allowed.

I would say at the end of the year get signs posted everywhere that remind them to not only clean out the locker but to take the lock home also. It has become routine by that time that after you open the locker you also close it and put the lock back on. So in some cases it is route behavior not just being a pain.

Could final report cards be held till locker passes cleaning check and lock removal? As in end of the year they are either mailed final report card . . .or a letter is sent that says something about locker not being cleaned/ unlocked and must be taken care of to release report card.

[jerkface11]

This is bound to be easier than bolt cutters. http://www.locksmithtoolandsupply.co...egory_Code=PCK

[Mango]

Your students are lucky. Last I was in school, they cut all the locks off the day before school ended. This caused much complaining amongst the students. And as for cataloging stuff they left behind? It was all left in a single large box in the main office.

[Polenicus]

Yes, well, unfortunately this is a college, and the students are a bunch of entitlement whores as it IS.

The problem is partially procedural, as far as cutting. Who has what locker is supposedly tracked, but the system is unreliable. Basically, rather than a centralized locker administration, the individual department heads, and in some cases individual TEACHERS keep track of lockers in their section, and keep track of who has what. To ensure, however, that people don't get away without paying their locker rental fee, they still have to go to the Registrar's office with approval from their instructor, and rent a little plastic tag that fits onto the lock u-bend, and is color coded to indicate if you're there for a semester, or for a full year.

Now, these tags should, theoretically, make it easy to see who gets cut and who doesn't, as the colors change each year. Green or orange tag? You're good, those are the current colors. Anything else? SNIP.

BUT, Security can't cut ANYTHING without approval from the department heads. And the department heads aren't comfortable with just telling us to go wholesale chopping off anything that doesn't have the right tag. So they feel the need to go through their banks and make a list. But when you're on summer vacation, and you've got HUNDREDS of lockers assigned to your department... well, you procrastinate.

To illustrate how difficult this makes things; in the Business Tower, where we're currently cutting, we were told in an e-mail from one department head to cut any locks that did not have the current orange or green tags. A second e-mail, sent after we had started cutting, told us to NOT cut the brown-tagged lockers, which were from the summer semester (which is over). A third e-mail asked us why we weren't cutting the brown-tagged lockers, and asked us to cut them post-haste.

Notices are posted up at the end of every semester, clearing spelling out who needs to clear out their lockers, and by when, and I have no idea how to make it any clearer. Remove your belongings and lock. I believe a few department heads add that additional fees might be charged if the locks are left on, but there's no mechanism in place to DO that at the moment.

I just hope they sharpen those bolt cutters before I get back on shift. They're betting painfully dull.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I just hope they sharpen those bolt cutters before I get back on shift. They're betting painfully dull.

I seem to recall janitors removing padlocks from lockers with a chisel and big hammer. Of course that was many years ago, and locks today may resist that technique.

[jerkface11]

I seem to recall janitors removing padlocks from lockers with a chisel and big hammer. Of course that was many years ago, and locks today may resist that technique.

There are two kinds of locks you're likely to find the brass ones and the laminated ones. Neither of which is especially tough. However using a hammer and chisel could damage the locker. Bolt cutters or Shim Picks are your best bet.

[Emrld]

These are collage/ university students.
That is a new one to me . . .when I was in collage you carried everything with you.
The only exclusion was band and art. They had storage for large instruments in the band rooms. And the art teachers had their own closet to set up how they wanted for each class. (most just had a rolling cart for each class they pulled out during and then put back after.
An across the board system needs to be put in place. A rule sheet set up that states when locks will be cut off lockers. (like 3 days after semester end) You will be charged if your lock has to be cut/ items are left behind. Have it signed and filed as part of the rental agreement for the unit. Teachers need to stop coddling them at this point. If they fet their lock cut off for not following rules . . .time they learned the lesson.

[Dave1982]

Yeah, it's stupid for them to leave their own locks attached to the lockers, but it's even worse that your administration doesn't ISSUE locks. That way, they can have the combination AND a master key for this sort of situation.