Detecting Colleges And Universities?

There are walking trails around the one here and people park in random places after hours and walk their dogs. It’s probably one of those things where if you do it late in the evening no one in their right mind would ever care. It’s got be late enough to where Karen’s have already gone home.

If I have to sneak, then I know the answer to the question. It seemed odd that a cop suggested me hunting campuses though. I'd want to hit the campus grounds. I remember my college days back then. She made me wonder so I posted. Thanks.

Being in a small town I'm not aware of any colleges close enough to detect so I guess it "might" depend on each individual college.

In hindsight maybe you'd wished you'd asked the cop if she knew for sure it was okay or if it was simply a suggestion.

.....when I first saw your thread title my first initial immediate impression was if you wanted to know if there were any colleges/universities that also taught metal detecting

If there was, maybe one of the classes would look like this -

http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?p=2915398#post2915398

Back in Kansas there was a nice Jr. College right near our apt.
Not super old, so I didn't expect to find a whole lot of silver coins, but jewelry was my thing and I spent many hours there.
One of my first times a cop drove by, we had a nice talk and he said as long as I don't wreck up the place and nobody complained I had free reign.
Other cops drove by on future visits and every one just smiled and waved when they saw me.

This place had an old football field in the back that was also used by a high school that was just behind that but neither school used it anymore because they both built nice new ones as the years passed.
There was two large soccer fields again that weren't used for years.
A large pad with several basketball goals surrounding it on every edge.
Next to a parking lot off one end of the basketball pad was a big flat field that I had no idea what it was used for but I figured students sat there from time to time.
Plus the very large student parking lot was divided up by long, grass filled islands.

Every one of these were prime jewelry hunting areas to me, I spent a lot of hours there over about a 2 year span and found tons of coins and other stuff but I sure wasn't wrong about the jewelry.
What you see below is the silver and gold that came out of every one of those different sites I mentioned.
The class ring and the two silver were on the perimeters of the sports fields were people stood, sat or watched.
The 14k ring from the field close to the basketball courts.
The very old 24k heirloom ring with a natural pearl from one of the parking lot dividers.
I didn't have a chance to find everything, I am sure there was more but I just ran out of time.
We left that state in 2014, if I lived in Kansas today I would still be hunting that place.

If you can hunt them anytime you find one, high schools too because I have cleaned up at them, also...I have discovered kids just don't seem to be able to hold on to jewelry for some reason.

Martin_V3i said:

.... "You should hunt the local colleges." ....

Click to expand...

This is a multi-faceted question.

1) This lady cop (bless her heart, I have nothing but respect for ANY leo) is just giving an off-the-cuff comment. Not some sort of legal opinion, or something that you can "take to the bank" that gives you carte-blanche for "local colleges" anywhere you go. Right ?

2) You were not accosted or questioned for your particular activity. Instead you were questioned d/t some busy-body lookie-lou. Right ? Ok, then, fine : Avoid such lookie-lou busy-bodies in the future, right ?

3) I do not hesitate to hunt the lawns of any junior college (or S. U. etc...) that I come to . After all : I'm looking for the ring by wife lost there, or the boyscout ring my dad lost there in the 1960s. I mean, c'mon ! Why do people make this complicated, as if we're about to handle nuclear radiation ? Just go detecting !

I hunt several volleyball courts at jr. colleges for past two years and had no problems. They probably thought I was just an eccentric professor.

Martin_V3i said:

I always automatically figured they were off limits unless you were a student, but a cop who was called on me for being called about "an old man walking" in circles at a older public elementary school, and the lady cop quickly said, "I can see what you're doing and, "You are not doing anything illegal" then added, "You should hunt the local colleges."

Do y'all go to colleges and universities?

Click to expand...

Yeah, I've done a few. Oddly, I find watches pretty often. I think people take them off to play in the fields. Plenty of change and stuff, but I find parks and regular schools to consistently provide better 'stuff'.

There's a lot more junk/costume stuff at the colleges, for some reason. I typically find better stuff at high schools. I think it may have to do with the fact that in High School kids are buying stuff that is more expensive because they don't have expenses. When they hit college, every $ counts!

Skippy

I haven’t tried my local university yet - I’ve sort of ignored the area previously, figuring that if it wasn’t “off limits”, then it was probably hunted pretty hard and not worth the time. But I have seen another detectorist hunting one of the large open areas at the school in the recent past, and it’s had me re-evaluating the idea of trying it. If we ever get s decent amount of rain, I’ll probably try it once the semester ends at the end of November.

In general, I think that the type of college or university plays a role in the decision. In my case, the local university is a public institution - to me, that means it’s no different than a public park, and unless the university has published rules expressly forbidding metal detecting by name or has posted areas restricting access to the general public, I’ll personally feel comfortable assuming it’s fair game - just like a public park, it’s possible that the groundskeepers or the campus police might ask me to leave, but I know that’s the worst that might happen. I haven’t been asked to leave a park yet, and I suspect it would be no different with the university. If the university is a private institution, that’s a different animal, to me - that’s a “no hunt” without some sort of official blessing. If groundskeeper John Fescue says “Sure, it’s not a problem”, it’s a go - but I definitely need a legit name and title to use in case I’m approached.

I have hunted a couple of Lowell University campus' I have done fairly well on them. never had a problem.

It is illegal at my local state large college (30k+ students). Clearly spelled out on their website. However, i have been allowed to hunt there for specific lost jewelry items. Never did any good tho. I think those college students scoop up anything really valuable before it hits the ground.

Yeah my local j.c. has been good to me.

Next a big University

I got kicked off one about a month ago. It wasn't the campus, per se, but a vacant lot where the structure had been torn down. The university has been buying up the lots in a certain area and probably wants to expand the campus to this area eventually. At any rate , I was curious about how well they were watched so I pushed the issue. The campus cop caught wind somehow and called in the municipal cops, who told me to leave. So I did. Shame! Good signals around. I dug some stuff before they blew in. All junk except for a set of keys on a key ring. Lots of room to roam.

I'm wondering if they had a game camera set up on a tree or some such. There were several lots in a row and they also owned the nearest house, which was unoccupied. Incidentally, this is also a state run university. FWIW, these lots are getting kind of overgrown and brushy. This is not your typical "halls of ivy" manicured campus grounds. They are not truly on the currently fenced and groomed campus grounds. They are gradually becoming unkempt. How "private property" is a state run university?