A series of pidge thefts at St Hugh’s has put students and staff on alert over the past week. Multiple instances have seen items being stolen from pidges and people’s belongings going missing in college.
Venkat Kondragunta, the college’s JCR President, told Cherwell, “There has been a small increase in the past few weeks of informal, word-of-mouth complaints about students’ personal belongings going missing in college. This is obviously unacceptable if it turns out to be more than just ‘they used some of my milk for a cup of tea’.
“We have set up a formal procedure of reporting such incidences in the hope of gauging the extent of the issue.” Kondragunta added that the JCR is currently liaising with college staff to prevent further thefts.
The Swan, the St Hugh’s JCR newspaper, has run an announcement informing students of the procedure for reporting thefts.
In a statement to Cherwell, a spokesperson for St Hugh’s said, “As a community we take any report of theft seriously, and the College, JCR and MCR work closely together to investigate and resolve any such reports.”
Theodora Bradbury, a student at St Hugh’s, stated, “The general feeling in the JCR is disgruntlement; we have had quite a bit of food theft as well recently so people are a bit upset.
“That said,” she continued, “as the Vice President said that only one person has officially reported a theft to her so far, and between the lack of reporting and difficulty of knowing whether something’s been taken from your pidge or just got lost in the post, it’s uncertain as to whether we can really take useful action to deal with the issue.”
St Hugh’s has previously experienced some petty theft. Large amounts of food were stolen from the residence’s kitchens in Michaelmas, term which led to intervention from the college.
