At NECUSA Event, Campus Security Pros Connect

The annual event brings together campus security professionals in the Northeast.
Published: June 22, 2016

The Northeast Colleges and Universities Security Association held its annual conference this week to give campus security professionals the opportunity to work and learn together.

The event, which featured presentations, awards and workshops, took place June 19-22 in Hyannis, Massachusetts.

“Being able to share information, to have the opportunity to share our expertise and knowledge, is hugely valuable,” NECUSA Vice President Bill Lafferty says.

RELATED: Lt. Colonel David Grossman to Speak at Campus Safety Conference West

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The presentations included risk assessment tips from Dave Taylor, the associate director of public safety at Gettysburg College, and an extensive Clery Act update from Dolores Stafford, the president of the National Association of Clery Compliance Officers and Professionals.

“My job is to hone in on what the Department of Education is honing in on,” Stafford, who’s taught more than 300 classes on the Clery Act, said during her presentation.

Stafford discussed the implications of the Violence Against Women Act, the consequences of different kinds of Clery Act violations and broke down specific audit findings from the Office for Civil Rights.

Stafford pointed to the prevalence of poor records management in OCR findings and discussed the issue of shrinking budgets with attendees.

“We are in a do-more-with-less mentality on our college campuses,” Dolores said. “And schools are trying to do all this alone, which is a huge challenge.”

Conference attendee Stewart Smith, the director of campus safety at Connecticut College, agreed the task of managing campus security has become more difficult in recent years.

“Since Virginia Tech, everybody’s being held to a much higher standard, which they should be,” Smith said. “That’s why coming to events like these, where everybody’s going through the same thing and everybody’s been where you’ve been, it gets people to understand that they’re not in it alone. It’s about sharing information and ideas.”

Overall, Lafferty says he thought the event was a success.

“There’s continued problems on all of our campuses, we’re all under the same umbrella,” Laferty says. “At this event we’re able to share what we’re trying out, what’s working and what isn’t and we all grow from those conversations.”

Campus Safety holds its own conferences this summer. For more information on those, visit campussafetyconference.com.

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Strategy & Planning Series
Strategy & Planning Series
Strategy & Planning Series