School Security Technologies

Oh, no! You won't be getting a printed SCUP–45 Preliminary Program in the mail this year. Instead, SCUP is going green and regularly updating this digital version (PDF), which you can download at any time.

Check it out! You don't want to miss higher education's premier planning conference, and your one chance this year to assemble with nearly 1,500 of your peers and colleagues: July 10–14, Minneapolis.

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SCUP Link

We often find useful resources at the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities (NCEF), which is headed by SCUPer Judy Marks. This (currently 16-page) resource is created by NCEF and updated quarterly, because the technologies and their use are changing so rapidly. The NCEF's mandate is for K–12 education, but this and many other resources there are valuable to higher education planners as well.

Over the past decade electronic security technology has evolved from an exotic possibility into an essential safety consideration. Technological improvements are coming onto the market almost daily, and keeping up with the latest innovation is a full time job. At a minimum, a basic understanding of these devices has become a prerequisite for well-informed school security planning.

Before resorting to high-tech security solutions, school officials should think carefully about the potential for unintended consequences. Technological fixes may be mismatched to the problems being addressed. They can be expensive. Any network will require continual maintenance, eventual upgrading, and constantly updated virus protection and intrusion detection systems (IDS) to watch for hackers or unauthorized transfers of data. A full-blown information technology (IT) department will usually be essential.

An over-reliance on electronic technology can backfire with power outages and technological failures. Some security technologies raise political and philosophical concerns. Still, technology, used correctly, can be highly functional and cost effective. Its pros and cons must be weighed carefully within the context of local sensibilities and conditions.

Don’t start by choosing a technology and looking for a problem it can solve. The process should be the reverse: Identify and prioritize the problems before jumping to solutions, and analyze solutions carefully before committing funding. It’s not uncommon for districts to invest in a particular technology district-wide before analyzing and priority-ranking the real concerns of the individual schools. Every school should be capable of quick lockdowns and evacuations, but the details beyond that can vary considerably. Some schools are in rough neighborhoods where violence is endemic, others are not. Some schools are constrained by meager budgets, others have deep pockets. Leaky roofs may take precedence over electronic access control systems.
Partial measures can prove to be wasted investments. Secure front doors are of little value if back entries remain uncontrolled. Metal detectors and ID cards won’t stop bullying behavior, nor will security cameras stop offenders, as has become all too evident at many school shootings. On the other hand, comprehensive access control and improved emergency communication systems are usually good investments.

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA - "Strengths and Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats"
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA - "Smart Planning in an Era of Uncertainty"
• April 7, Houston, TX - "Sustaining Higher Education in an Age of Challenge"

For a Campus in Crisis, the President's Voice Is Key

Three related SCUP resources:

• Topical resource page on crisis and disaster planning;
• Knowledge Community (email list) on emergency management planning; and
• Monograph for presidents by Sal D. Rinella, Lessons from the Front: The Presidential Role in Disaster Planning and Response (PDF).

Everyone knows about disaster or emergency planning, but how do those differ from crisis planning? Good crisis planning, or crisis management, is fully integrated and covers any kind of possible negative impact on a campus. That includes the kinds of physical disasters we commonly think of, as well as situations like the recent tragic shootings at UAH, or even the news that a university official in a high place has been arrested for a felony. (The field of crisis management got its start during the Tylenol tampering of the last century.)

This recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education by Scott Carlson focuses on the presidential perspective in managing crisis. "Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations at Virginia Tech, says that Mr. Steger is not naturally inclined to talk to the news media. But Mr. Hincker advised from the beginning of Virginia Tech's response to the 2007 tragedy on its campus that the president should be visible as the steady face of the university during a crisis, and he says Mr. Steger did not hesitate."

SCUP Resource. Current SCUP president-elect Sal D. Rinella authored a monograph on this topic, Lessons from the front" The Presidential Role in Disaster Planning and Response (PDF). Its advice is sound and timeless, and a copy of this monograph should be in every campus top PR staffer's backpack, as well as in every president's. Why don't you ensure that your president has a copy?

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 14–16: Baltimore, MD
• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA

After Katrina, Delgado Community College Slowly Climbs Back

Delgado Community College leaders have had a rough road to repairing their campus. For one thing, federal funds were allocated based on the original cost of facilities and equipment, not replacement cost. And post-Katrina building codes created more expense. Then, of course, the recession hit. And the chancellor says it's hard to compete for state funding with the big institutions. In her article for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Katherine Mangan writes:

It's a scene one might have expected months—even a year—after the 2005 hurricane, which devastated New Orleans and forced most local colleges to close for the fall semester. But this August will mark the storm's fifth anniversary, and only now is the state's oldest and largest community college able to move ahead with reconstruction.

Seventy percent of the buildings on Delgado's campus were damaged by floods and wind, and as the spring 2010 semester begins, 30 percent of the building space is still unusable. Still, students are coming in droves, looking for affordable ways to retool their skills and find work in a city that, like the college, is still in recovery mode.

"Last fall we had to turn away around 1,500 people because we couldn't turn another closet into a classroom," says the chancellor, Ron D. Wright. "That was the most distressing thing I had to do. I've never told anyone they couldn't come."

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 14–16: Baltimore, MD
• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA

What Can Any Higher Education Administrator Do to Help Haiti Right Now?

A question that each of us has been asking ourselves. After we texted "HAITI" to "90999" and sent $10 via our cell phone bill to the Red Cross, of course.

Tracy Fitzimmons, president of Shenandoah University, has put together a thoughtful piece in Inside Higher Ed. It deserves a few minutes of your time to read and reflect. Really, this is a SCUP-like, integrated, even strategic approach to the current crisis that looks at what campuses are, do, and can do in what one might say is a very sustainable way.

Read it.

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 14–16: Baltimore, MD
• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA

Iraqi Campus Is Under Gang’s Sway

Imagine working at an institution with the kinds of problems the staff at Mustansiriya University (Iraq) are coping with. A violent gang of students, with support from faculty and campus security:

Although Baghdad and most other areas of the country are now generally free of the armed militias that caused much of the violence during Iraq’s sectarian warfare, Mustansiriya seems a remnant of that chaos. It is under the sway of an armed group of violent Shiite students in engineering, literature, law and other disciplines; faculty members; and campus security guards.

[P]rofessors and administrators at the school solemnly give the names of colleagues and students who were threatened by the group before being found dead: Jasim al-Fahaidawi, a professor of Arabic literature, shot dead at the university’s entrance in 2005; Najeb al-Salihi, a psychology professor, kidnapped in 2006 near the campus and found in the morgue three weeks later, shot to death; and Jasim Fiadh al-Shammari, a psychology professor fatally shot near the university, also in 2006.

The Dollars and Sense of Closing Schools for H1N1

This Scientific American article, subtitled "As the H1N1 virus picks up speed this fall, economists have outlined just how much it would cost to close schools--hotbeds of flu contagion," covers a recent report by The Brookings Institution about the economic impact of mass school closings. It focuses on K-12, but the breadth and scope of the dollar impacts considered are of interest to anyone weighing options for campus crisis management and planning.

Are Campus Emergency Plans Inadequate?

Doug Lederman writes about a recent study of 28 campus emergency plans: 

While colleges can do little if anything to stop emergencies like these from unfolding, emergency preparedness experts and federal agencies generally agree on a set of steps that postsecondary and other institutions should take to be ready to respond to crises. A study published in the latest issue of Radiologic Technology suggests, though, that the emergency preparedness plans at a significant proportion of colleges and universities lack some of the key elements seen as necessary to prepare, prevent, respond and recover from "mass casualty events.'"

The full study is available here. Below is its brief synopsis in the publication, Radiologic Technology:

Background: Tragic university shootings have prompted administrators of higher education institutions to re-evaluate their emergency preparedness plans and take appropriate measures for preventing and responding to emergencies.

Objective: To review the literature and identify key components needed to prevent shootings at higher education institutions in the United States, and in particular, institutions housing radiologic science programs.

Methods: Twenty-eight emergency preparedness plans were retrieved electronically and reviewed from a convenience sample of accredited radiologic science programs provided by the Joint Review Committeeon Education in Radiologic Technology Web site.

Results" The review of the 28 emergency preparedness plans confirmed that most colleges are prepared for basic emergencies, but lack the key components needed to successfully address mass-casualty events. Only 5 (18%) of the 28 institutions addressed policies concerning school shootings.

R U Ready? Joining Forces 2 B Ready

Writing for University Business magazine, Ron Schacter takes a look at Virginia Tech, Boston University, Bryant University, Kent State University, and the University of Philadelphia, to highlight the recent strengthening of ties and cooperation between college and university security and emergency officials and their local, regional, and state counterparts.

“It ties all communication devices—cellphones, land lines, computers, 400 megahertz and 800 megahertz radios, and $50 Wal-Mart walkie-talkies—to the common denominator of an IP network,” says Rich Siedzik, Bryant’s director of computer and telecommunication services. The Smithfield fire department used to have to call each assisting department separately for aid, but “now with a push of a mouse connected to a PC, they reach everyone.”

Read the article here:
http://universitybusiness.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1316&p=3#0