Vance Carlson was working late in the textile department in the Art and Design Building. He left for about an hour while his fabric was washing, thinking another student would look after it.

When he returned, most of his fabric was gone.

“It was pretty inconvenient,” Carlson said. “I had to buy another $50 worth of fabric.”

Carlson is just one of the victims of art supply theft that has been occurring in the Art and Design building in the past few months. The frequent thefts are part of an ongoing investigation by the police. Only five reports of robbery and one report of misdemeanor theft have been accredited to the building since June 2009, though police said many of these types of thefts often go unreported.

Tori Basore, a sophomore in Art Education from Overland Park, had a $100 dye kit stolen this semester and did not report the theft. Basore said supplies were stolen on a weekly basis and went unreported for a number of reasons.

“I had to let it go,” Basore said. “There wasn’t much I could do about it.”

Some students do not report the thefts because they are in the middle of projects and need to find quick solutions while others do not think anything will be resolved by reporting the theft.

Graham Martin, a senior in textiles from Atlanta, said that one of his friends had all of her work stolen and that nothing was done after she told her instructor.

Martin himself has had at least $250 worth of supplies stolen. Among the items was a $200 dye kit he purchased. He said he had heard of another 13 students with the same theft.

Now, he said, he feels afraid to even go to the bathroom without locking everything up.

Other students have reported thefts of everything from supplies to food and actual finished art pieces.

The cost of replacing supplies as well as the nuisance of having to go out of the way to repurchase them frustrates students.

Sam Boje, a senior from Overland Park, also had a dye kit stolen. Boje could not afford and did not have the time to buy new supplies, so he paid a friend to borrow a kit. The theft problem, which he said has almost completely ruined people’s trust in one another, has put him on edge about his own actions for fear that people might think he is stealing.

“I think we need to find a way to bring some trust back into here,” Boje said. “It makes our department function a lot less smoothly if we can’t have some trust that we can leave our stuff out.”

Lois Greene, chair of the design department, said thefts continued to be a problem within the department despite security measures in place.

“In the past two years there have been a number of significant losses of stuff from the A&D,” she said in an e-mail. “It’s complicated because to enumerate all of this would be to advertise what is being done to attempt to control theft in A&D.”

In other words, publicizing problem areas and security measures within the building could prevent avoiding the problems in the first place.

Lockers are available to students, but many are damaged or broken altogether. In a section of 32 lockers on the fourth floor, 10 were unusable. Even students with secure lockers do not always have room to hold everything. Students are occasionally forced to leave pieces out for hours at a time if the pieces aren’t finished or need time to dry.

“We could use better lockers that actually lock but the University keeps telling us that the lockers are fine, although they are broken,” Martin said.

Martin said he was tired of this happening. Martin and others said they really noticed the problem last semester and that it had been a bigger issue ever since.

But theft is not just an issue for students.

Elizabeth Kowalchuk, associate dean for the School of Arts, said the theft of technology belonging to the department had been an ongoing problem in Art and Design. Laptop computers and camera equipment are some of the items that have been taken. Allowing the building to be open throughout the evening could also be part of the problem, she said. Although the Art and Design building closes at night, anyone would have access by way of Marvin Hall, which is open 24 hours every day.

Martin said that until he sees a resolution, he has adopted a new philosophy ­— to keep a better watch on the things and make sure to secure every possession.

“I have just been extra careful about everything that I do in the building,” Martin said. “I don’t bring things unless I absolutely have to.”

Thefts at the Department of Art and Design is part of an ongoing investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call the Office of Public Safety at 785-864-5900.

— Edited by Megan Heacock