A rash of burglaries at the University of Hawaii at Manoa's student housing has prompted university officials to e-mail a security alert to all students and staff members.

While the series of burglaries were first reported in October, four additional burglaries reported Tuesday prompted the alert last week, said UH spokesman Gregg Takayama.

All the burglaries have been at Hale Noelani and Hale Wainani, which are walk-up apartments with easily accessible windows.

To get in, the burglars remove window screens and sometimes cut through them to reach in and take items off the desks at night while students are asleep, Takayama said. In some cases, iPods and laptops were stolen.

The alert urged students living in apartments, residence halls and dorms to close their windows, even while they are sleeping and especially when they are not in their rooms.

“;We want everybody living on campus to be more alert in terms of security,”; Takayama said.

During the semester break, the university will install tension rods on the apartments' window screens, making them harder to open, but students will still need to close windows, he said.

Anyone who sees anything suspicious is asked to call campus security at 956-6911.