The Dining Center will not take action to prevent people from stealing mugs for the 2019 spring semester, according to a dining official.

Resident District Manager for Bon Appetit Management Dawn Sajdyk said the college replaced more than 2,000 mugs at the start of the spring semester because of items breaking and students taking them from the Dining Center.

“None of us are here to police the students,” Sajdyk said. “We all want to simply make sure the students have what they need because they’re our number one priority.”

Sajdyk said that, if she or other Dining Center employees see students leaving with mugs or other utensils, they will ask them to bring the items back when they are finished.

Assistant Director of Community Standards and Student Conduct Melissa Woolsey said if resident assistants find Dining Center items in a dorm more than once during routine health and safety inspections, the items will be confiscated and the individual will be charged with a “misuse of college resources/property.”

The Dining Center partnered with the Facilities Management Department for a retrieval process, including a place for facility staff to return Dining Center items if they see any around campus, according to Sajdyk.

Sajdyk said the Dining Center will continue to make sure students feel welcome when they enter, and she hopes students will continue to provide feedback about their dining experience.

Sajdyk said in an interview that most of the mugs went missing around the end of October and December. She said she assumes most people wanted to take their drinks to study in other locations besides the Dining Center. According to Sajdyk, replacing mugs and other dining utensils is common for the college.

“We work with a lot of local vendors that allow us to replace missing items,” she said. “We make sure to budget for the replacement of items like this.”

Sajdyk said the college could allocate more funds to other aspects of the Dining Center, like student events and outside food vendors, if fewer dishes like mugs and plates had to be replaced.

Desk Coordinator Maya Kaczor sent an email to desk assistants, at the direction of Resident Director Michael Barcelo, to confront students when they discover them with stolen Dining Center items.

“If [students] don’t go and return those items, you should fill out an incident report,” Kaczor wrote in the email.

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that Desk Coordinator Maya Kaczor “sent an email to resident assistants,” the article has been updated to reflect that Kaczor “ sent an email to desk assistants, at the direction of Resident Director Michael Barcelo.”