Public Safety will begin registering laptops on campus next week.
The effort is designed to facilitate the return of laptops recovered by police or University officials, Crime Prevention Specialist Barry Weiser said yesterday.
Public Safety will record the serial numbers of registered laptops in a database that can then be used to match any registered portable computer with its owner.
Twelve laptops were reportedly stolen on campus last year, Weiser said. Three of these were later recovered. Additionally, the University's lost-and-found received at least four. According to Weiser, laptop security has become a larger problem on campus since the introduction of the Student Computer Initiative — which provides freshmen with laptops at subsidized prices — a few years ago.