College can be a rewarding but challenging experience for students, academics, and support personnel. Creating a secure environment for all parties can significantly enhance academic results and work performance.
Over 179,000 students from all over the United States were polled by the higher education analytics website CollegeStats.org regarding their safety worries. Numerous topics were addressed, including excessive drinking, campus thefts, violence, and more. These findings give us an idea of the level of effort required by higher education when implementing comprehensive security programs aimed at providing students and staff with safer learning environments.
Let’s find out five smart integrations that can improve college security without being intrusive.
1. Key Card and Mobile Access Systems for Touchless Access
A plastic card, ID badge, or another electronic key card or fob that you use and swipe in front of a scanner to unlock a door or gain admission to a building is undoubtedly something you’ve seen or used before.
Organizations worldwide frequently use them as a security measure. For example, parking garages, office buildings with several tenants, HOA communities with shared amenity zones, and huge business offices with controlled access to specific areas frequently use key cards and fobs for door entry systems.
Colleges utilize electronic key card and key fob door entry systems to ensure that their facilities are secure while at the same time allowing students, faculty, and staff to enter without having to stop and open the door. Moreover, key card access can typically be tracked and can leave an audit trail.
Mobile access systems for touchless access are also becoming increasingly popular. This technology allows students and staff to use their mobile phones as personal door keys, eliminating the need for actual physical cards or tokens.
2. Rule-Based Access Control (RuBAC) Implementation
A hybrid technique called rule-based access control allows administrators to create detailed rules that add extra security layers.
Usually, the rules are determined by variables such as time, seniority, and danger level. Furthermore, there could potentially exist individual regulations for every instance of entry, with the possibility of either remaining constant or changing dynamically. For example, any user who does not have the necessary credentials to enter a specific space at a certain time may be denied access using implicit refuse rules.
Higher degrees of protection, granular control, easy authorization, flexible control, and ensured compliance are all features of rule-based approaches. For example, a school could establish access levels so that seniors may have more freedom to enter certain areas outside of the campus, while freshmen would be restricted to their dorms.
3. Integrating Systems for Managing Visitors
Colleges need a precise record of every person who enters university facilities and visits the campus. Campuses can ensure that all visitors are accurately recorded and streamline the guest management process by integrating visitor management software with access control.
Visitors can complete a digital registration form and enter their information before accessing the building by using temporary credentials stored on their mobile devices to enter the building. The software will delete the credentials from their device after they sign out of the system and leave.
As it guarantees complete correctness and reduces processing times, this is a much-preferred alternative to a log book or manual visitor control system.
4. Emergency Notification Systems
Every second counts in an emergency: fires spread rapidly, an active shooter incident can develop suddenly, and a strong earthquake can reduce a building to ruins within seconds. The longer it takes to inform people of an emergency, the worse the outcome.
Reaching everyone can be particularly difficult for campuses that host hundreds and hundreds of students and dozens of employees.
Investing in a school emergency notification system allows you to communicate with people swiftly by leveraging various devices and communication channels. In order to send emergency communications messages to students and employees, designated staff members such as management, school administrators, human resources, communications, IT, or facilities professionals should have access to the system.
For schools, there are several different emergency alerting systems available. In general, they work by broadcasting alerts about the situation through speakers, computers, phones, or tablets and advice on what people need to do to be safe, such as when they must flee or find shelter quickly.
Some school mass notification systems can automatically dial numbers, leave voicemails, and notify emergency services like the police, fire, or ambulance when necessary.
5. Cloud-Based Management Systems
Colleges process large amounts of data, which exposes them to data breaches and other cyberattacks. Implementing a cloud-based management system can greatly reduce these risks.
In order to deliver a proactive response to potential threats, a cloud security solution leverages industry-leading encryption technologies and other advanced solutions.
Administrators and users should also implement strong passwords and multi-factor authentication procedures and establish internal and external discipline policies to restrict data access based on the concept of least privilege.
Preventing data breaches can be essential to avoid serious financial or reputational damages.
Educational Institutions Must Keep Up to Date With The Latest Security Advancements
In order to provide a secure and protected academic setting for students, educational institutions must keep up to date with the latest advancements and developments in the security sector. They should assess their current security plan in light of these security trends and pinpoint any areas where improvements are needed.
By integrating technologies such as rule-based access control, key card systems, visitor management software, emergency notification systems, and cloud-based management systems, campuses will have a more comprehensive security plan that can provide students with the peace of mind they need.