Page 30 - College Planning & Management, April 2017

MANAGING CAMPUS VISITORS
groups — and cut the problems off before an incident occurs. It doesn’t always work, but that’s the goal.
To facilitate that goal, college and university security professionals have moved beyond the fixed security station and predictable patrol routes of yesterday. “Today, security officers on patrol will stop to engage visitors,” says Timm. “We’ll ap- proach visitors and speak to them: ‘Hello, welcome to our campus. May I help you find your destination?’
“When engaging visitors, security of- ficers actively look for potential risks. We count on people to intervene, discourage and stop unwanted activity.”
Today, these and other visitor manage- ment procedures are followed by campus security as well as law enforcement officers assigned to a campus. Police officers, of course, undergo training that enables them to intervene and tamp down emotions when necessary.
Security officers can be trained in the same techniques. In fact, some security directors put their officers through formal police training programs to give them the skills they need to manage trouble.
Who’s Coming to Visit?
A key visitor management issue involves identifying visitors. “This is a difficult issue,” says Kevin Davis, J.D., CPP, 1st vice
chair with the ASIS International School Safety and Security Council. “Most campus- es want to maintain an open and inviting at- mosphere. Yet many campuses cover many acres and consist of many buildings and outdoor areas, making it difficult to identify visitors and control access to campus.
“Some campuses are gated or located in a low number of buildings, making it relatively easy to control access. Security on these campuses can require visitors to wear distinctive visitor ID badges when entering the campus.”
Davis also notes the difficulties any school will have controlling access when hosting outside activities and rallies on campus.
Large and Small Schools
“There are different strategies for manag- ing people on campus in small and large schools,” says Rick Thompson, a former campus security consultant with RETA Security. RETA recently merged with Facility Engineering Associates (FEA), a Washington, DC-based engineering consulting firm with offices around the country.
Smaller schools, continues Thompson, can manage access with little more than a fence and a gate with a guard.
“We’ve found that the best way to control access in larger schools with many buildings is to focus on each individual
building,” he says. “You can use photo ID badges and a single access point in each building. Everyone goes past a security desk at the entrance staffed by a security person — or someone that works in the building. Everyone coming in displays a badge. Visitors that don’t have badges must check in at the desk and show an ID.”
It’s best to have a system that enables you to make a photo ID for visitors. There are two reasons for this. First, in today’s world, it is simply too risky to allow poten- tial bad actors into your buildings. Second, if there is an emergency — a fire or an earthquake, for instance — security must make sure that everyone gets out of the building safely. To do that, officers must rely on employee and visitor records that report the total number of people in the building and their names.
Why not just count people going into the building? Certainly that is a faster, easier method. Then again, a more formal system that issues photo ID badges will provide more accurate information in the event of an emergency.
Thompson relates the example of a col- lege in a Midwestern city — he didn’t want to name the school — that has set up a comprehensive visitor management system based on photo ID badges.
“The IDs are good for one day, and they are programmed to control access,” he says. “Inside campus buildings, certain areas have different access control priorities. There are data centers, rare book rooms in the library, chemistry labs, artists’ studios, executive floors and so on. At this school, security can program key fobs and cards to provide access to each of the areas individual students and faculty members need to visit.
“As a result, everyone can move freely around campus going where their fobs and cards will let them go.”
Managing Group Gatherings and Protests
Managing students, faculty and com- munity visitors has a routine to it that works well when applied consistently.
30 COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / APRIL 2017
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PHOTO COURTESY OF FIBONACCI BLUE