University Business - July 2009 - (Page 78)

COMMUNIT Y COLLEGES Securing the Community College Strategies for managing security issues at two-year institutions By Ann McClure h e da n g e r s pe opl e might encounter on a college campus are the same as those on a city street. since there is no way to know when a security incident might occur (unless, say, someone calls in a bomb threat), campus leaders are relying on proper training to enable their security personnel to predict such incidents and respond appropriately. While security personnel at community colleges deal with the same challenges faced by their counterparts at fouryear institutions, there are some twists presented by the more fluid nature of the population at two-year institutions. T intervention team was also formed after the tragedy at Virginia Tech to improve communication with faculty and staff. “It is important to make sure our people are seeing and being seen,” lyle says. “Community colleges are leading the charge in creating behavioral intervention teams,” says Brett suklow, president of the national Center for higher education risk Management (nCherM). The teams pull together point people from across campus to receive reports of disruptive or problematic behavior. They then investigate and develop an appropriate response. earlier this year, nCherM released ‘Community colleges are leading the charge in creating behavioral intervention teams.’ —Brett Suklow, National Center for Higher Education Risk Management “our students go home at night and we don’t know what they are doing at home, but they can still bring issues back to campus with them,” says gary lyle, chief of the department of public safety at Anne Arundel Community College (a aCC) in Maryland. “at a four-year their roommates might alert people to issues.” lyle says his department engages in “community-oriented policing” to build relationships with constituents on campus. one officer is assigned to meet regularly with student organizations. a behavioral 78 | July/August 2009 a six-part online “Campus safety 101” course, which helps train faculty and staff to recognize “red flag” behaviors. “The point is to tell people who aren’t familiar with psychology what to look for,” suklow explains. EyE in ThE Sky “When you think about campus safety, you think about students, but [colleges] are also large employers,” says Mario scalora, a psychology professor at the University of nebraska-Lincoln as well as a consultant with local, state, and fed- eral law enforcement in assessing predictive risk factors regarding threatening or violent activity toward public officials and institutions. Just as the fluid student population makes it difficult to understand outside forces influencing their behavior, the larger percentage of adjunct and parttime faculty employed at community colleges can make it harder to become familiar with everyone working on campus. add that concern to the likelihood a community college will have satellite campuses and outreach programs that bring local citizens onto campus—making for a much larger population to watch. Community colleges can deal with this issue through using smart Id cards that control entrance and exit points, and increasing their use of security cameras, suggests dilip sarangan, an industry analyst with Frost & sullivan north american electronics & security practice. good locations for cameras include parking lots and other open areas, the vicinity of blue emergency phones, laboratories with expensive equipment, and data storage areas. Video analytic software can help make cameras more effective, says Tony hackett, a security system design expert with aimetis. The company’s intelligent video surveillance software can help identify an abandoned bag or recognize when someone is traveling against the expected flow of traffic. The ability to send live images to a local police officer’s patrol car can help shape the response to an incident as it occurs. hackett says some schools have universitybusiness.com http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - July 2009

University Business - July 2009
Contents
Editor’s Note
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Behind the News
Sense of Place
Viewpoint
Financial Aid
Human Resources
The State of Student Aid
Out of the Gym, onto the Desktop
EduComm 2009
Internet Technology
Community Colleges
End Note
SPECIAL SECTION: Annual Directory of Higher EdConsultants

University Business - July 2009