Giving Compass' Take:

• Here are four innovative ways that technology can help increase college campus safety and ensure students can feel secure at school. 

• How can donors contribute to campus safety measures? 

• Read about other challenges with technology and education.

In a survey by CollegeStats.org of students at the 100 most populous U.S. colleges and universities about their top safety concerns, nearly one third of respondents said they had no worries at all. While college administrators and educators may be pleased to learn that many of their students feel completely safe on campus, they know they can’t afford to view the issue through rose-colored lenses. Protecting the students in their care requires evaluating all potential safety risks and taking proactive steps to mitigate them.

Increasingly, those security measures have included a high-tech component.

Here are four examples of how technology is helping to make college campuses more secure.

  1. Smarter Identification and Access Keeping college students, personnel and visitors safe includes protecting the campus from intrusion by people who might want to do them harm. While meeting that charge, college officials also need easy methods of verifying the identities of those who are part of the campus community so they can quickly access facilities and go about their business. On a growing number of college campuses, the gatekeepers have gone digital.
  2. Easier Intelligence Sharing For all the tech-enhanced identification tools at university administrators’ disposal, an iris camera will never replace the role of the human observer in recognizing potential security threats.
  3. Digitized Surveillance While the role of alert individuals is critical to campus safety, schools sometimes turn to technology to broaden the scope and capacity of their surveillance.
  4. Tech-Enabled Theft Prevention Implementing a secure tech-enabled package delivery and retrieval system, for example, can help reduce the loss of property through mail theft.

Read the full article about how technology can make college campuses safer by Pitney Bowes at Education Dive.