Mary I. Jagoda '05, of Huntington, N.Y., and her friend Sarah Aranoff, of Bethesda, Md., were reported missing Sunday afternoon following a kayaking trip off Harwichport, Mass., according to the U.S. Coast Guard."A Coast Guard Jayhawk rescue helicopter located two capsized kayaks similar to those used by Jagoda and Aranoff tied together about one mile south of Monomoy Island at 11 a.m. (Monday)" stated a Coast Guard press release.

The kayaks were found in an area known as Pollock Rip Channel off Cape Cod, according to Chatham Harbormaster Stuart Smith.

According to Lt. Cmdr. Cook of the Coast Guard Command Center, "The search is still active, still ongoing."

"They got the fog behind them and they got lost in the fog. The girls could be on that island or they could be somewhere on shore. God knows what happened," Jagoda's father Louis Jagoda told the Associated Press, adding that his daughter had taken a sea-kayaking course several years ago.

Media Relations Director Dennis Nealon said, "I found out mid-afternoon (Monday) that she had been reported missing."

According to Nealon, University officials including President Jehuda Reinharz, Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Jean Eddy, Senior Vice President for Communications Lorna Whalen and Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer "made the decision this evening to let the entire undergraduate student body know what we knew."

Sawyer's brief, campus-wide e-mail stated that "The University received word this afternoon that a Brandeis student, Mary Jagoda, '05, has been reported missing and was last seen kayaking with a friend off of Cape Cod on Sunday. A full scale search is under way and we are awaiting further word. Our thoughts and our prayers are with Mary's family and friends. As soon as more information becomes available, we will share it with the entire Brandeis community."

During an interview, Sawyer said, "We have all of our information from the media."

"We've had no contact with the family. My understanding is that both the mother and the father are on the Cape," he added.

According to the AP, her father is offering $5,000 for any information that will help authorities locate his daughter.

"We're trying to ask the general public to look harder. We're trying to encourage them to look harder by offering money," her father said according to the article.

Aside from her father, Jagoda has a mother, Anna Jagoda, and had a brother, Jake Jagoda who died during the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.

Memorialized in the New York Times' "Portraits of Grief" series, Jake Jagoda was described as an avid fisherman who had taken a position as a trader at Cantor Fitzgerald only weeks before the attacks because, "Jake was sort of growing up. He wanted more of a regular job that you would commute to and where he could have more of a future," Mary Jagoda had told The Times.

An American Studies major with a minor in Journalism, Mary spent last summer working for PUMA in their Public Relations Department.

On campus, she is known as a forward for the new Field Hockey team and as an avid Yankees fan.

She said she plans to study abroad in Glasgow, Scotland this spring.

Jagoda was described by one friend at Brandeis as "an all-around good person." In high school, she swam freestyle for her school, according to section9swim.com.

Aranoff, a student at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Penn., is listed on the college's Web site as majoring in Physics and Astronomy and is a member of their Class of 2005.

According to the AP, park rangers searched an abandoned lighthouse on Monomoy, an island and wildlife refuge, Monday afternoon and found no sign of the women.

Smith commented that Monomoy is about eight miles long and up to several miles wide.

"It's a large island to search by foot," he told the AP.

According to the AP article, searchers hold out hope that Jagoda and Aranoff made it to one of the shelters on the island.

Coast Guard boats continued to search the area Monday afternoon along with harbormaster boats from Chatham and Harwich, Smith also told the AP.

According to the Coast Guard, "the Jefferson Island, a 110-foot cutter from Portland, Me., is en route to the scene. It is expected to arrive around 6 p.m. (Monday evening) and will search throughout the night."

"I need my daughter back," said Jagoda's father.