Page 36 - AUCSO Newsletter - Winter 2023

Higher Education: Enhancing the Institution’s Brand While Providing Peace of Mind

It’s no surprise that horrific acts by active assailants on college campuses generate national
headlines. While these events are rare, virtually every college and university will encounter them
at some point.
The Department of Homeland Security is engaging administrators, faculty members, students,
parents, and other stakeholders across K-12 school and college university communities, as well as

law enforcement and other first responders who serve those communities, to raise awareness and
communicate best practices. They also offer a wealth of resources that are available online.

In addition to violent incidents, at colleges and universities where contract security may act as or
supplement campus police or partner with local police, security professionals must respond to a
wide range of safety and security concerns, including theft, alcohol and drug abuse, sexual assault,
domestic or dating violence, racially or gender motivated violence, and stalking. The Clery Center,
a national nonprofit dedicated to helping college and university officials meet the standards of the
Jeanne Clery Act, provides guidance to security professionals with the training and resources
needed to understand compliance requirements.

When contracting security to serve in higher education environments, consider companies that
partner with organizations such as the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement
Administrators (IACLEA), an organization that presents resources and information for public
safety, including best practices. Also, it’s wise for colleges to partner with companies that have
access to elevated technology for sophisticated business intelligence and artificial intelligence (AI)
workforce management tools.

For example, multi-modal communication to students and faculty during an emergency keeps the
campus community as safe as possible. Timely warnings of significant crimes that have occurred
and may continue to pose a threat, as well as emergency notifications in advance of a potential or
reasonably foreseeable threat to a campus, are mandated through the Clery Act.

These warnings need to include credible information that can be used to prompt immediate student
and employee action in response to the event. Broadcasting these warnings and informative
directions to large populations on a campus is challenging and requires many different
simultaneous methods including sirens, loudspeakers, email, text messaging, social networking
tools, and word of mouth.

These multi-modal communication tools aid in minimizing tragedies and are life savers during
natural and man-made disasters. Hence, it’s important to ensure that the higher education security
program intelligently integrates business intelligence into the program.

For smaller four-year and community college institutions, law enforcement may be limited to the
municipal resources available within the community. Consequently, higher education security
officers provide necessary customer service by conducting safety and security procedures,
developing site-specific policies and, when needed, responding to emergencies. They conduct
regular and random patrols around the campus and perimeter, interface with the campus
community and monitor access control technology.

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