Eighteen classroom projectors owned by the Instructional Media Center have been stolen this year from campus, totaling more than $93,000 in stolen goods.
That number is more than twice the amount of projectors that were taken in 2005, worrying some campus officials about how to stop this crime wave.
We all know it's wrong to steal stuff, especially from MSU, since a lot of our tuition dollars go toward buying classroom technology.
But let's step into the shoes of these hooligan thieves for a second. If we look at the campus as they do, we might see that stealing projectors doesn't seem all that challenging.
After all, lots of things get locked up in classrooms and other parts of campus buildings, but projectors are many times kept in locked cabinets in unlocked classrooms.
Toilet paper is locked into its holder in many academic and administrative buildings. Even in dorms there are staff people who will chase you down for taking a box of Lucky Charms.
You get the point.
So many less expensive things get secured that it's surprising projectors aren't better protected.
More care needs to be taken to make sure a thief can't make off with a projector in the first place.
Maybe they could be chained down with a heavy lock, or university personnel could make sure classrooms are locked during peak thievery hours.
Or they could be painted a bright, identifiable color so if they end up in pawn shops or on eBay, we would know they're property of MSU.
Maybe they could be modified so that if they are taken too far off campus they stop working or emit a high-pitched siren that alerts that it has been stolen.
Even better, the projectors could be changed so that they project the Spartan "S" into the sky when they're taken off campus.
Clearly, some ideas are better than others. But in all seriousness, $93,000 is a lot of money for the university to lose.
Alarms cost around $110, which makes them seem like a better alternative than just watching projectors disappear from campus.
Either secure them better or watch people on eBay buy our projectors.
Which seems like a better option?
