As universities teach, provide accommodation for, and create associations of greater numbers of students every year, security becomes more and more of a challenge. Universities are often large enough to be considered small cities unto themselves – many universities have a system of campuses, each with a variety of buildings and a variety of security needs. With such a sprawling enterprise to look after, administrators may sometimes be unaware of the risks they incur. This can present a multitude of vulnerabilities for which a university needs to consider solutions.

In Japan, it is customary to remove one’s shoes when entering a home, temple or shrine. Italians usually only drink cappuccino in the mornings. Don’t expect to go shopping on Sundays in Vienna because all the stores are closed. In Costa Rica, one is not expected to tip the wait staff as a service charge is already included in the bill.

On college and university campuses across the country, the role of the campus police officer is changing. More and more, school leaders are authorizing the arming of sworn officers to allow them to provide a higher level of protection in the areas they patrol and to allow for a more effective response in high-risk situations.

With the multitude of doors, entrances and restricted areas found on a university campus, maintaining safe and secure facilities presents unique challenges. To help facilitate the task, key control and asset management systems can be installed as an effective and increasingly important physical security technology for safeguarding dormitories, research labs, administrative buildings and so on. Regardless of the size or type of facility, a fundamental building block of an overall security strategy can be realized through managed key control and its capability for custom solutions, minimizing and monitoring risk and seamless integration with the building’s global physical security system.

The fall school season, which is now fully underway, has been made a little easier for those college campuses that implemented a key control system over the previous summer months. The systems allow the staff to maintain better control of master keys and any keys used for high value areas such as research labs, athletic facilities or IT environments. There is even more value for the school in the form of enhanced security and safety when key control solutions are applied to residential life, maintenance and other applications across the campus.