This post was updated Oct. 17 at 1:12 p.m.

When UCLA Ceramics Club president Jade Wong opened the club’s ASUCLA storage locker Sept. 30, she found it empty.

The missing materials and equipment – all purchased with student funds – included handmade art pieces, how-to guides for workshops and glazing supplies. Their disappearance was a significant loss for the club, said Wong, a fourth-year psychology student.

Wong said that last year, a lack of storage space for the club led to students storing materials in their dorm rooms, making it inconvenient to transport everything to the club’s meeting site in Kerckhoff Hall.

To address the issue, the club forged a relationship with a local ceramics studio, with board members personally delivering members’ artwork to be fired there, said Maya Vielmetter Garcia, a fourth-year sociology student and the club’s vice president.

“Last year, our operations were very mobile,” Wong added. “We were moving from dorm to car, to the kiln, the private firing studio, to someone else’s car, to someone else’s dorm, to someone else’s apartment – and so we really needed a storage space for this quarter.”

Wong said she learned through a Student Organizations, Leadership and Engagement advisor that there were available locker spaces within Kerckhoff Hall specifically for student organizations. She applied and was approved for a storage locker at the end of last summer, she added.

Wong said she and Garcia moved the club’s supplies into their designated locker Sept. 25. The locker was spacious enough to store the around 100 ceramic pieces the club generates each quarter, she added.

In the locker storage room, scattered supplies from a variety of clubs – including trash and broken glass – covered the floor, Wong said.

They did not put a lock on the locker, assuming only other club members had access to the room and their materials would not be disturbed, Garcia said.

But when Wong returned to the storage locker Sept. 30 to add more clay supplies, she found that most of the materials on the floor were not there. Upon reaching the club’s locker, which had remained unlocked, all the materials inside it were also gone, she said.

“The inside of the locker was completely empty,” Wong said. “I was shocked.”

Wong said although some of the materials might not be costly, hundreds of hours went into creating the missing art pieces, making them irreplaceable. She added that the club is not seeking justice or reimbursement because they want to instead focus on retrieving the original pieces and supplies.

After immediately reporting the incident to the Ackerman Union information desk, Wong said she was told the Office Space Allocation Committee advisor she originally signed the contract with was unavailable, and she could not reach them despite attempting to do so multiple times.

Wong said while the Ackerman desk employee was on the phone with an OSAC employee, Wong was mistakenly identified as the locker’s previous occupant. She said the OSAC employee stated items were discarded after a lack of response to communication attempts. She clarified that she had moved in a week ago, she added.

Wong added that she was then redirected to the OSAC general email, where she received a prompt response, asking her to confirm the items in the locker.

After sending a photo of the missing items, Wong said she then received an email response from OSAC stating that after confirming with the storage space’s movers, none of the club’s belongings were in ASUCLA’s possession. The email implied that the items had been stolen, Wong added.

In a written statement, a spokesperson from ASUCLA said OSAC has allocated Room 144 in Kerckhoff Hall as a communal space for student groups, in which all space users are responsible for their belongings. The spokesperson said there is not a rental setup for lockers, even though Wong had signed a contract renting the office space.

“The matter is now under investigation,” the spokesperson said in the statement. “Occupants have been informed of the incident and reminded to secure their belongings in the shared spaces.”

Wong said OSAC informed her through email that it is the club’s responsibility to replace any lost or missing items, and she was advised to seek financial assistance by applying for funding through various Undergraduate Students Association Council resources. The contract she signed stated that ASUCLA does not accept responsibility for items left in rented office space.

Wong said she also filed a police report with UCPD in hopes of tracking down the missing materials. The club’s board is in the process of purchasing new materials to continue supporting its members, Garcia said, adding that the club had invested significant time and effort into accumulating funds and membership fees to provide materials.

Wong declined to disclose the financial value of the missing items because of the ongoing investigation.

“We’re trying not to let it affect any of our members, because so many of them are so excited to join, and we don’t want to disappoint them,” Wong said.

UCPD recently provided footage to the club from Sept. 27 showing third-party movers removing items from Kerckhoff 144, including the Ceramics Club’s belongings, Wong said. The footage captures the movers placing the club’s materials in trash bins, she added.

Wong said an OSAC representative informed her that this moving company previously damaged UCLA property and mistakenly disposed of university items. It remains unclear whether the movers were specifically instructed to remove the club’s materials or if a miscommunication occurred, Wong added.

The OSAC representative also indicated that some of the club’s more valuable items – such as new pottery materials and members’ JBL speaker – might be stored in the moving company’s warehouse, but the club is awaiting a response from the movers for confirmation, Wong said.

The representative also told Wong that on the day the club’s materials were discarded, she noticed a box of the club’s ceramic paints on the floor and decided to take them to repurpose them, Wong added. After discovering this, the club was able to retrieve the paints, which are some of its most expensive items, said Wong.

“We’re not pinning the blame on one party or another; it really is a big question mark. With the footage, now it’s clear that it (the materials) was discarded. There was no theft.” Garcia said. “Nobody was trying to steal it with malicious intent. It was either negligence or a mistake.”

Founded last winter, the club hosts workshops, art exhibitions and collaborative projects. UCLA’s existing ceramics studio is only accessible to art students, so Garcia said the board wanted to ensure everyone has a chance to explore this art form.

“We aim to be as accessible as possible,” Garcia said. “Part of why we founded this club was because we realized the art department was a little bit restrictive in their facilities.”

Harold Song, a second-year global studies student and the club’s co-secretary, said although the incident has lowered the club’s morale, he is proud of how quickly the club acted to reorder supplies and maintain its commitment to members.

“This club is resilient, and we’re doing everything we can to provide the service that we promised students, despite this pretty frustrating setback,” Garcia said.