Blogs:

Have you ever wondered who provides the required leadership in our universities and colleges for campus security and safety? Have we ever seen them in our campuses? Do we know which staffs handle security offices and know them by name, location and telephone numbers?

If there is an incident in the campus, where do we report? Even if we do report to the security officer at the campus, how efficient they are with their response? As compared to a generation ago, schools today give parents no assurance whatsoever to parents on their children’s security.

There has been many a horrific incident on campuses recently that has terrified parents. It is the duty of university and college advisors to invite public into their offices and constantly engage them.
Every institution should examine its policies, safety precautions and procedures. In order to assure students of optimum safety, enough budgets and resources must be allocated. As much as for students, safety is a major cause for concern for staffs and advisors too. The question advisors must ask is what they would do if attacked by a student?

In many community colleges, a Student Intervention Team or SIT committee is established. This committee deals with student behavior that is unacceptable in the campus that includes dangerous classroom behavior, unreasonable verbal outbursts, expressions of violence and threat.

Every educational institution must also list out identified infractions with regard to student conduct in the Student Handbook. An emergency notification system must be put in place for students and employees if they face any untoward event on campus.

It is a good idea designating code words. In the event of an emergency, staffs can directly dial easy numbers through which they can access the security office. The caller ID on the security line will tell them which part of the campus the call is coming from to take prompt action.

Work schedules must be designed in such a way that at least two people are at the offices at any given time. It is important factoring in student workers who may not be as well trained in security issues like the full time employees of the college.

 Keep employees educated on how to enter and exit the building. All exits must be marked to make them easier to identify in the event of emergency. In areas like traffic intersections, toll booths and entrances, it is a good idea placing video cameras to monitor student and employee activities.

Annual budget of colleges and universities should factor in the latest maintenance upgrades and security and surveillance technology. Apart from all this, one of the major factors to be considered by educational institutions is to bring about awareness on security concerns among students and staffs.

Student workers, advisors and counselors are trained to be trusting and not suspicious. However, sometimes, they are vulnerable to security breaches. It is therefore imperative to have strong emergency plans in place especially in view of the spate of college violence. It is time to be more cautious and careful.