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CAMPUS

Investigation continues into theft of expensive classroom projectors

By Luis Morales
Norwich University Staff Writer

At the end of spring semester 2004, four smart-classroom projectors were stolen from Norwich University, resulting in a loss of thousands of dollars to the technology department, according to a technology representative.

During finals week last spring, four Proxima projectors were stolen from different smart classrooms around campus.

Replacement projectors were ordered immediately so that the summer classes might be able to take advantage of the technology and use those resources as soon as possible.

“There were four of them (stolen),” said Kathy Rubelkala Information Technology support technician, explaining that the projectors cost “about $5,000 apiece, and they were in Communications 113, Partridge 128, Webb 004 and Cabot 295.”

The replacement projector in Communications 113 was later vandalized when someone set a password in the projector that could not be removed by IT, Rubelkala said, adding that the projector had to be sent back to the company so that the password could be removed.

The investigation into who committed the crimes is ongoing.

Norwich Security investigated the incident.

The $20,000 loss had to be taken from the $80,000 annual budget that the technology department uses to “upgrade classrooms and address issues,” said Philip Susmann, vice president for technology and strategic partnerships.

“It was disheartening to have that equipment disappear,” Susmann said.

During the summer, Norwich had the online graduates oncampus for a one-week residency, and the missing projectors created some problems with class scheduling and technology resources available to the students.

“It did create some problems, because we needed to make sure that the rooms that were scheduled for student presentations were not one of the rooms that had one of the projectors missing,“ said Gail Poitras, director of academic computing.

“When we loose anything in the classrooms, it hurts the students,” Poitras said.

These are the first such projector thefts since some portable projectors were taken from Dewey a few years ago.

“There were some missing from Dewey; one was missing, not a ceiling mounted one, and that was replaced, and then that one, too, was stolen,” Rubelkala said.

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