Joelle Hopkins spent the equivalent of 19 Chicken-n-Waffle sandwiches from Uptown Grill, or $95, in order to replace the key to her residence hall room.
Hopkins, a sophomore studying nutrition, is unsure how she lost her key, but realized it was gone one day this past October.
“I looked everywhere,” Hopkins said. “I thought maybe I left it in the dining hall ... so I looked everywhere there and asked them and looked in the lost and found, and they didn’t have it.”
She also searched the Ping Center and her room in Boyd Hall, but the missing key never turned up.
Hopkins’ key is one of the more than 250 keys that have been replaced this academic year as of Oct. 31, according to Pete Trentacoste, executive director of Housing and Residence Life.
Last year, Housing and Residence Life collected $70,190 in key charges when more than 900 keys were misplaced, Trentacoste said.
“The money received helps offset our indirect costs to Facilities Management as well as charges for emergency lock changes/lock changes done after hours as our department is charged for the overtime cost incurred,” Trentacoste said in an email.
Students who lose their keys have to go to their green office in order to pick up temporary keys. If a student doesn’t find his or her key in a set amount of time, his or her student account is charged $95 for a room key and $10 for an exterior key.
Hopkins said she had one week before Housing and Residence Life charged the new key to her account.
“The exact day I got an email from the dorm hall saying that they charged my account $95 for my lost key, I got an email from the Ohio University Police Department that they found my key,” Hopkins said.
Even though OUPD found her key, it was too late, and Hopkins still had to pay the fee because the university already changed the lock on her door.
The cost to replace residence hall room keys has been on the rise in recent years. It cost $70 in 2010-11, went up to $75 in 2013-14 and jumped to $95 in 2014-15, Trentacoste said.
The price went up last year because of a recommendation to make the cost more in line with the expenses, Trentacoste said.
“The charge of $95 is assessed when a student loses a room key since that charge covers two cores — one to the student’s room and also a core for the student’s mailbox plus replacement keys,” Trentacoste said in an email.
He said if a student were to lose both keys, it would cost him or her $105.
“The cost is developed after receiving input from Access Control on the current costs for lock/key replacements,” Trentacoste said in an email. “Our protocol is to replace the lock core and issue new keys whenever a student room key is lost.”
Matt Smith, assistant director for University Access Control, said he sees an increase in the loss of residence hall keys four times a year: Fall Semester opening, Spring Semester close, two weeks after Halloween Weekend and Spring Semester open.
Some students take extra steps to ensure they have everything before leaving their room.
“I always do the 'three check' to make sure I have my phone, keys and wallet everyday,” Brandon DeWitt, a freshman studying exercise physiology, said, adding that he has never lost his keys.
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