Page 4 - AUCSO Newsletter - Winter 2023

Vice-Chairman/Editor’s Address

I recently had the pleasure of welcoming 4 American University Police representatives to UCL. Andrew
MacDonald from Northeastern, Vince Bergado from Stanford, and Matt Mills and Allen Porter from
Arkansas came to UCL for a tour and a chat. The weather was cold, the coffee was hot and the first question
I was asked was “what is your biggest challenge?”. It was great to see that no matter who we meet locally,
natioanlly or internationally, we always ask each other that opening question.
It's a difficult question to answer as we all have those 50 problems that could cause us the biggest challenge
that day. As managers we need to be able to provide our instituions with Security staff that can deal with
any challenge that is thrown at us, and AUCSO as an association should always be there to support our
members, identify future challenges and collectively work together to try and find solutions.

This is why we have chosen The Changing Face of Security in Higher Education as the theme for our 2023
conference, which takes place next month at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. We have selected speakers
who can provide us with their expert opinion on the challenges we are either facing, or will face over the
next year. But never forget, as with any conference one of the real values is when we get to spend time with
each other, asking that all important question – “What is your biggest challenge?”

I wrote a piece in the last edition about my attendance at the 2022 IACLEA Conference and how much I got
out of it. One of the things I have been doing a lot more since then is reading some of their periodicals to see
what challenges they face. I have placed in this newsletter some articles from these American periodicals
which demonstrate just how similar we all are. It could have been written in Australia, Africa, Europe etc. as
these are matters that are affecting us all.

And we can’t mention American Institutions without reflecting on the tragic events which happened last
month where three students were killed and five others injured after a gunman opened fire at the Michigan
State University and also the tragic death of Temple University Police Officer, Christopher Fitzgerald who
was murdered while protecting a student from an 18-year-old carjacker. Our thoughts are with everyone
affected by these terrible acts.

We all heard the tragic news that one of our own, Sheridan ‘Shed’ Coulthard recenlty passed away following
his battle with cancer. Shed was a remarkable individual who passionately cared not just about the
community he was protecting, or even his own Security staff but all Security staff, and you could see this
through his passion for training University Security staff. We chose to honour Shed in this edition by posting
some of the comments that his fellow AUCSO members had written about him. RIP Shed.

This will be my last newsletter as your Vice-Chair, as next month I take on the role of Chair, a position I am
very much looking forward to undertaking, to see where we can all take AUCSO next. Regardless whether
you live in the old days, live for today or embrace the future, I will try to accommodate your wishes for this
assocation. We are a very highly respected association, both in the HE Industry and the Security Industry,
and it is my role to continue to build on what so many others have achieved, to get you all the respect and
support that all HE Security professionals deserve.

As usual, a huge thanks to those who took the time to send me their comments and as
always, please let me know all of your future Good News Stories, whether it be staff
recognition, a new innovation, an award, an effective partnership, a new starter, a
leaver you’d like to acknowledge, a special event or anything else you would like to
show to the rest of the association so that we can all learn and appriciate the great work
undertaken across our membership. Simply send me an email (with the details and at
least one photo) to vice-chair@aucso.org

Oliver Curran AUCSO Vice Chairman

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