Cholmondeley's, the student lounge and eatery, has changed its system of handling cash as a result of a series of thefts, the most recent of which occurred in October, said Tal Zaken '11, the financial manager of Chum's.Alissa Cherry '10, the events manager for Chum's, said in an interview that two years ago, the Chum's staff noticed that people were stealing money out of the safe. The staff changed its system so that money could not be stolen, but she was not at liberty to talk about the details of the changes in the system.

According to Cherry, after they changed the system, a party took place at Chum's and someone from off campus stole a speaker and monitors.

Daniel Orkin '10, the president of the Punk, Rock n' Roll Club, wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that there was a party at Chum's last semester during which the two main speakers, a floor monitor and two speaker stands were stolen. He could not remember the exact date but said it was around April.

"I don't know exactly where the funding came from, but Chums [sic] replaced the speakers by the time the semester started. Apart from some mild frustration on my part, it did not effect [sic] the punk rock and roll club [sic] very much at all," Orkin wrote.

Cherry said that the Chum's staff had to replace the equipment. "It was a huge cut in our budget, and we don't get funding from the school," she said.

Cherry than said that this semester approximately $200 had been stolen out of the register at the beginning of the semester. She could not recall the exact date but said it was approximately three weeks before the Drag Ball, which took place on Oct. 24.

As a result of this theft, the staff changed its system of handling money again.

Zaken said he changed the system of handling cash to ensure that no more thefts occurred. He added that no thefts had occurred since the change.

Zaken explained that under the initial system, a member of the Chum's staff kept the money made that night in a dorm room overnight and that staff would be responsible for transferring the money to the Shapiro Campus Center.

"This system was good in the sense that nothing could be robbed from Chum's, but money was just sitting in the student dorms overnight," he said.

Once Zaken became financial manager, he said he implemented a new system to check if thefts were occurring.

Under the new system, the money is kept in one location, and he has sole access to it along with General Manager Tim Kane and the Faculty Advisor Sarah Richardson.

"We have a system of accountability-we know where the money is at all times, how much is there and who has access to the money," said Cherry.

Zaken said that in between the two systems, there was a limited amount of money that all staff members had access to, and it was that limited amount that was stolen.

"I confirmed thefts were occurring at the beginning of this year. I noticed money was missing that should be there," said Zaken.

Cherry said the money was missing from the cash register, and that Chum's staff had filed a report with the Department of Public Safety as soon as they learned of the theft, and that Public Safety had investigated but had not found the culprit.

Edward Callahan, the director of Public Safety, said in an interview with the Justice that the Chum's staff had filed a complaint, and Public Safety had subsequently interviewed people involved with Chum's. He could not recall the specific names of people interviewed, however, because he did not have the official date the report was filed.

"I remember there was an amount of money stolen, and that the situation dictated that the people working needed to implement more preventive measures so it doesn't happen again," said Callahan.

"We don't want to point fingers. The only thing we can do is change our system so people on campus don't know where our money is," Cherry said. She did not mention any particular suspicions.

Zaken said that while the monetary amount that was stolen was not enormous, it did affect the budget.

"I thought it was small, but when you are talking about a business that operates the way Chum's does, any amount of money seems large because we don't make a profit," he said.

He explained that when the grill had stopped working, the staff had to struggle to find the funds for a new one.