A rash of recent computer thefts inf Robinson Hall continued yesterday -- this time in the Student Assembly office.
Expensive electronic equipment has been stolen in three separate instances since this weekend twice from the Student Publications office and most recently from the Student Assembly offices on the first floor of Robinson Hall.
Although the theft of the first of the five computers, a graphite iMac, was found missing this past weekend after the Student Publications Center was reportedly left unlocked, the subsequent theft of two G-4 computers on Wednesday evening took place while that same door was allegedly secured.
Yesterday afternoon marked the third theft, this time from the Student Assembly office.
Two iMacs, one of which was purchased this week, a printer, and a telephone were stolen from that office sometime between 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. yesterday.
According to Safety and Security, there was no sign of forced entry in any of the three instances.
While S&S initially thought at least one of the missing computers might have been borrowed by another publication working in the same office, the most recent incident makes that possibility less likely.
Because students can access the Student Publications and Production office by signing out a key from the Collis Activities Desk, an unspecified number of people can enter the room. At the time of the second theft, however, no key was checked out from Collis.
Although the Collis log is kept fairly accurately, students share keys within organizations, rendering the reliability of the log imperfect.
The thieves could also have accessed the room using a key that has been missing from Collis for an unknown period of time.Another difficulty in limiting the number of suspects is the fact that employees -- including student employees -- and editors of some publications have individual keys to the Student Publications Center.
The Student Publications Center is home to seven campus publications, including The Jacko, Uncommon Threads, Stone Sense Review, The Sports Weekly, Vox Populi Comix, Dartmouth Contemporary and Cahiers du Dartma, Director of Student Activities Linda Kennedy said.
The theft may leave many of these student publications unable to meet their printing deadlines.
"We're really hoping to get them back because there were files and back files [belonging to the publications]", Kennedy said. "And some of them do very complicated graphics and you can't just use any computer."
Kennedy said she was unsure as to what changes she will make in the security procedures as a result of the theft.
"We thought we had a pretty good system in place," Kennedy said. "We don't want to make it so difficult that students can't use these computers, because that's what they're there for -- to be used."
While this is not the first time that computers have been taken from a public area -- a similar theft occurred several years ago at Collis -- the volume of stolen merchandise is unusually large.
In all of 1999, for example, only nine machines were reported stolen to Safety and Security.
While Safety and Security cautioned that stolen computers are rarely found, Kennedy said that she plans to wait "several weeks" in hopes of recovering the computers before ordering new ones.
Cummings asked anyone who knows anything about the incidents to contact the Hanover Police or Safety and Security.
