I see this phenomenon at my school all the time. With college kids they bring it to school, ride it around a few times and leave them locked (with simple cable locks) everywhere.

If they leave them locked to benches, trees, gates or whatever they usually have until the end of the semester to remove them. Maintenance will put stickers stating to remove them by a certain date or they will be confiscated. Unfortunately it seems to be hit or miss if they actually will.

However, if students lock their bikes to bike racks they can be there indefinitely. We have a covered rack with 22 spots. Unfortunately 11 are taken by bikes that have not moved. They have flat tires, rusted chains, and missing parts, but remain there.

With some college kids they don't appreciate much because its not their money that was spent.