Page 73 - Security Today, January/February 2022

“Because academic environments are prime locations for COVID-19 and its variants to spread, more colleges and universities are making major changes to who has building access and how students, visitors, and employees are coming and going.”
By Jim Lantrip and Frank Spano
Avoiding the Spread of an Incident’s Impact
Instant, multi-modal communication to stu- dents and faculty during an emergency situa- tion keeps the campus community as safe as possible. Timely warnings of significant spe- cific crimes—and emergency notifications of ongoing or impending hazards—that threaten a campus are mandated through the Clery Act. These warnings need to include credible information that can be used to prompt immediate student and employee action in response to the event. Promulgating these warnings and informative directions to large populations on a campus remains a challenge and requires many different simultaneous methods including sirens, loudspeakers, email, text messaging, social networking tools and word of mouth.
These multi-modal communication tools aid in minimizing tragedies and are used to provide up-to-the-minute instructions to stu- dents, faculty and staff for campus lockdowns and associated response postures. Emergency notification systems are also proving to be life- savers in the case of significant natural and man-made disasters.
Evolution of Access Control
The access control sector has been on the cut- ting edge in developing and deploying innova- tive technology. Consider entering into an academic building or residence hall that has future-proofed its access control. Push aside the traditional access control card where the card is touched to the reader and you wait for the click that signals access. All that touching, clicking and pointing includes putting your hands on more objects and surfaces. All that extra touching could result in an elevated risk of spreading a virus such as COVID-19.
Frictionless access control permits access to an area by using mobile applications on a smart phone. This technology was around well before the pandemic, but the advent of COVID-19 has fast-tracked frictionless access control into primetime.
These apps leverage NFC (near field com- munications) and Bluetooth to allow com- pletely frictionless access control. Employees and contractors no longer have to carry a badge or present credentials. Team members can keep their mobile device in their pocket or purse and wave their hand near the reader,
and the door will unlock.
More systems are coming onto the market
that don’t require a traditional card reader at the entrance door. They employ software that can use access the mobile device’s location to determine their proximity to the door for hands-free access control.
Academic institutions are trying to navigate how to ensure the security of their physical spaces and assets without having someone on site, and how to handle daily operations if they shift some or all of the team to a remote work- ing environment. Even with less people com- ing into the college, there are many security risks to consider in addition to the health and safety of their students and employees.
Because academic environments are prime locations for COVID-19 and its variants to spread, more colleges and universities are oper- ating with reduced staffing or a fully remote workforce. They’re also making major changes to who has building access and how students, visitors, and employees are coming and going.
What’s the “gold standard” for pandemic access control? Powered by artificial intelli- gence and Bluetooth, the access control sys- tem is integrated with a video platform which weaves medical safety technologies into the security practice.
Access control services help ensure that those present on campus have a legitimate business there. Regardless of the institution’s access strategy—from a fully-open campus to one with increasing security with perimeters tightening around potential targets such as residential students, vital research facilities, institutional collections and other restricted venues—ensuring that security professionals are diligently standing post in select locations is important. As important as technology is, it is the trained security professionals who can verify legitimate access, manage visitor access and detect and deter intrusions.
By actively monitoring educational build- ing systems operations and guarding against threats to the structures and their occupants, security professionals are monitoring to pro- actively identify hazards and to respond when appropriate. All while providing solutions that monitor and report on specific hazards with a watchful eye on issues that affect risk, liability, cost of operations, and sustainability. Institu- tions with off-campus locations often seek us
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