Page 19 - College Planning & Management, September 2018

THE SAFE AND SECURE CAMPUS
DESIGN + STRATEGIES
We’ve seen that environmental design is more than just the physical building; design also influences both the social and psychological interactions among its occupants and its community.
Every campus should have a robust, comprehensive safety strategy that includes training, drills, preventative policies, and intervention procedures. It must embrace the social networks that are at the heart of excellence in education and work hand-in-glove with the physical architecture, security systems, and community partners present on campus to proactively create and maintain a peaceful campus environment.
College communities naturally combine many of these best practices of first responders, emergency preparedness training, two-way communication, data-driven smart capabilities, and well- ness programs within their ongoing strategic planning.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
The American college campus holds a unique place in the academic world. As described by Bartlett Giamatti, the college campus is intended to be “a free and ordered space” entirely open
to the surrounding community, inviting all its neighbors inside, without exception.
Thus, the dilemma. How might we continue to produce good design for the campus that lives up to this highest of democratic ideals while, at the same time, keeping our faculty and students safe from harm?
The complexity of this issue requires a deft hand—potential pitfalls abound, from underestimating threats to overcompen- sating fortifications, from dismissing technological evolution to rejecting flexibility in favor of stability. This is not an issue we can put off to another generation of architects and planners, but rather an opportunity to make a statement of what we value today as a society, and to creatively protect that which matters most—our loved ones and our future. CPM
David Moore is the Higher Ed Studio director for McMillan Pazdan Smith and has
led numerous building programs, feasibility studies, and master plans for academic, public, and private institutions with an emphasis on identifying strategies to increase efficiency, functionality, and capacity. The firm’s white paper authored by Susan Baker, AIA, ALEP, “Creating a Safe Campus,” can be downloaded from its website (www. mcmillanpazdansmith.com).
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SEPTEMBER 2018 / COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT 19