Can college campuses identify a stolen ipad on their network if the device was reregistered but is off? (My friend had his ipad stolen.) Thanks

I was wondering how to help a friend locate his device. We are on a college campus with a good IT department. Should the device log into the network with another identity, are these campus technology departments authorized to access mac addresses to identify who logged on? And how can knowing the serial number of the product help? Thanks. If there is any other additional information, it would be greatly appreciated!!