In late November, the Alabama Board of Adjustment denied a $1 million lawsuit brought by parents of an Auburn University student who was fatally shot on campus in March 2008. The victim’s father said his main reason for suing the school was to push Auburn to reinstate its campus police department. The university had dissolved its police force in 2004 and contracted with the city’s police department for campus protection.
This case illustrates the potential liability attached to campus public safety programs. Seven years after the mass shootings at Virginia Tech and six years after a similar incident at Northern Illinois University, colleges and universities continue to shake up their emergency communications and response capabilities to shootings and other criminal threats. NIU is now among the many colleges that have systems to transmit alerts to students via email, text, social media, and annunciation systems equipped with sirens.
For more on university security, read BD+C's Special Report: "How security is influencing campus design and construction"
State-mandated alert systems. Many states now mandate that campuses have active, sophisticated alert systems that are immediate and can reach a wide range of people. Within minutes of shots being fired outside Florida State University’s Strozier Library last November, FSU police issued an alert to 40,000 students. It read: “Dangerous Situation! Main Campus—Tallahassee. Seek shelter immediately, away from doors and windows.” Tallahassee police swept in and killed the gunman, who had wounded three people.
Smartphone technology and application software have made transmitting mass alerts simpler. Kristina Anderson, a survivor of the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting spree—a 19-year-old sophomore at the time, she was struck by three bullets—co-developed LiveSafe, a GPS-enabled app that can be used to contact the police via chat, video, and voice. It has been in use at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, since August 2013.
Electronic reader systems with personal PIN codes. These have become fairly common. The ID cards can also be used as debit cards. But what’s becoming a “big deal,” according to security consultant Fred Miehl, Senior Security Consultant, LynStaar Engineering, is a new category called video analytics. This includes cameras that have been programmed to spot unusual movements and send out an immediate alarm, or video imagery that can be linked to images of criminals in police databases. All this technology is in the development phase.
Training and preparedness programs. Many security experts say that training students, faculty, and staff to be alert to potential threats is essential to any public safety program. The University of Pennsylvania conducts more than 200 safety workshops and forums each year for students, faculty, and staff. Since 2012, Bowling Green (Ohio) University has been training its campus community members about their options in an emergency through a program called ALICE—Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate.
Mental health intervention. More colleges and universities are bringing mental health and psychology experts into their public safety networks to help identify and assist at-risk students, faculty, and staff before things get out of hand. Shootings, arson, and rape may not be predictable, “but they are preventable,” says Brian Van Brunt, President, National Behavioral Intervention Team Association, and Senior Vice President, National Center for Higher Education Risk Management.
One public policy issue of special concern to academia is the threat to privacy from the proliferation of camera surveillance on campus. In response, the University of Pennsylvania has restricted its surveillance to security and safety matters and may not intrude on private matters. It has established a monitoring panel comprised of students, faculty, and staff to address such questions as where cameras should be placed to protect privacy. Penn staff who monitor camera systems must sign confidentiality agreements and are prohibited from leaking videos of, say, public student intimacy, to social media.
Related Stories
University Buildings | Sep 21, 2015
6 lessons in campus planning
For campus planning, focus typically falls on repairing the bricks and mortar without consideration of program priorities. Gensler's Pamela Delphenich offers helpful tips and advice.
Mixed-Use | Aug 26, 2015
Innovation districts + tech clusters: How the ‘open innovation’ era is revitalizing urban cores
In the race for highly coveted tech companies and startups, cities, institutions, and developers are teaming to form innovation hot pockets.
University Buildings | Aug 13, 2015
Best of Education Design: 9 projects named AIA Education Facility Design Award winners
Georgia Tech's Clough Commons, Boston's Berklee Tower, and seven other facilities were honored for aiding learning and demonstrating excellent architectural design.
Giants 400 | Aug 7, 2015
UNIVERSITY SECTOR GIANTS: Collaboration, creativity, technology—hallmarks of today’s campus facilities
At a time when competition for the cream of the student/faculty crop is intensifying, colleges and universities must recognize that students and parents are coming to expect an education environment that foments collaboration, according to BD+C's 2015 Giants 300 report.
Contractors | Jul 29, 2015
Consensus Construction Forecast: Double-digit growth expected for commercial sector in 2015, 2016
Despite the adverse weather conditions that curtailed design and construction activity in the first quarter of the year, the overall construction market has performed extremely well to date, according to AIA's latest Consensus Construction Forecast.
University Buildings | Jul 28, 2015
OMA designs terraced sports center for UK's Brighton College
Designs for what will be the biggest construction project in the school’s 170-year history feature a rectangular building at the edge of the school’s playing field. A running track is planned for the building’s roof, while sports facilities will be kept underneath.
University Buildings | Jul 21, 2015
Maker spaces: Designing places to test, break, and rebuild
Gensler's Kenneth Fisher and Keller Roughton highlight recent maker space projects at MIT and the University of Nebraska that provide just the right mix of equipment, tools, spaces, and disciplines to spark innovation.
University Buildings | Jul 2, 2015
Design for new pavilion in Toronto includes a ‘peel-away’ façade
An architect's proposal for a renovation of the main office building at the Ontario College of Art and Design features a façade that fans out from the edges of the building, like it’s opening up to visitors.
University Buildings | Jun 29, 2015
Ensuring today’s medical education facilities fit tomorrow’s healthcare
Through thought-leading design, medical schools have the unique opportunity to meet the needs of today’s medical students and more fully prepare them for their future healthcare careers. Perkins+Will’s Heidi Costello offers five key design factors to improve and influence medical education.
University Buildings | May 30, 2015
Texas senate approves $3 billion in bonds for university construction
For the first time in nearly a decade, Texas universities could soon have some state money for construction.