To say I am upset, disgruntled and very disappointed would all
be understatements. I send this out to my fellow Mills colleagues
and faculty members in a plea to do something about the inherent
theft problem on campus. We spend a great deal of money to attend
this esteemed college, and to think that you can’t even walk away
from your personal property (no matter WHERE you are on campus) for
five minutes without fear of it being stolen is a sad, sad state of
affairs. I have worked in numerous places over the past 20 years
and not once have I had someone steal anything from me. I walk away
from The Weekly office (a private and out of the way
location) to get coffee. When I return, not only is my backpack
missing, with all my school books and other personal items inside,
but also my camera and laptop.
I have lamented over how best to express myself in this letter
without losing the bigger point. After all, I have been complaining
and whining about my loss since Saturday (and probably will
continue for a while), yet I have also accepted the fact that
material things can be replaced. That, of course, does not address
the personal and sentimental items I had in my backpack and stored
on my hard drive. Short stories, poetry and other personal writings
I have done over the years…gone. Pictures of my mother (who
passed in 1996) that I scanned and refurbished to use for a project
I was working on…gone. Pictures of my pooch, “Maxx,”…gone. In
essence, a large part of my life is now gone and can never be
replaced. I was holding out for the clown that stole my belongings
to maybe read this letter and have sympathy enough to return them
to me, but that doesn’t even matter any more. What matters is, what
are we going to do about this problem?
I now know how it feels to be a victim. If you are interested in
making a change on campus, please e-mail me at gchampio@mills.edu.
