Multiyear security update to enhance campus safety begins

To better protect students, staff and faculty from any potential on-campus threats, the University of Colorado Boulder is beginning a multiyear project to update classrooms and buildings to advance its security and create more uniform protection across campus.

“I want people to go to class knowing they feel safe in their classroom,” said Carissa JaquishRocha, public safety program manager with the CU Boulder Police Department. “That’s the whole point of this project is that people feel safe coming to campus and learning.”

CU Boulder Police Department was awarded $3.4 million of state-controlled maintenance funding as well as an $8,000 grant from the Collaborative Reform Initiative Technical Assistance Center, a program of the U.S. Department of Justice, for the project. The state funding will purchase new hardware such as thumb locks, and the grant allowed the campus to hire a consultant who will help guide the campus as it begins to update its security, Jaquish-rocha said.

The campus began looking at ways to upgrade its security a few years ago after Boulder police responded to an incident where a man was suspected of wielding a machete inside the Champions Center on campus, Jaquish-rocha. Officers were unable to access the building because they did not have Buffone Cards — the identification cards that give students, staff and faculty access to campus facilities.

During instances like that — when the campus sends out an alert telling students or employees to follow its Run, Hide, Fight active harmer protocol — CU Boulder officials also realized that not every building or classroom on campus has the same equipment or technology that allows someone to do that, Jaquish-Rocha said.

If a student is in an older building such as Hale Science, they may not be able to properly secure themselves because not all doors have locks.

“It’s a problem because a student or affiliate may think, ‘Well if I hide in this classroom I’m safe,’ but they’re really not because the classroom is not secured,” she said.

“Our hope is now with this new update, that will be consistent across campus, so whether you’re in engineering or whether you’re in Hale, you’re Run, Hide, Fight means the exact same thing.”

The campus last year audited about 60 buildings, said Brian Lindoerfer, assistant vice chancellor for facilities operations and services. CU Police Department partnered with facilities management for the project.

The state funding can only be used at buildings that are less than five years old and operate under the campus’ general fund budget. The audit examined about 545 classrooms out of the 600 to 700 total classrooms on campus.

Lindoerfer said it will evaluate newer buildings such as the Ann & H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences in the future to see what updates it needs and will also review design standards to see how buildings with glass doors can be made more secure.

“Obviously we still want to provide some of those (glass) spaces because aesthetically they’re tremendous, but from a security perspective we have to look at it,” Lindoerfer said.

CU Boulder also met with the Boulder Police Department, CU Boulder police, the FBI, the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office, Boulder Fire-rescue and other first responders last year to get ideas for updates that will allow the campus to better partner with local agencies that may respond to on-campus threats.

“That really resulted in a whole list of recommendations from the door locks, to signage in classrooms to let students or faculty know what room they are in and then that same sign is on the outside so that first responders can coordinate together on which doors you’re going to access, when they’re gonna go in and those types of things,” Lindoerfer said.

Large lecture halls in buildings like Cristol Chemistry and Biochemistry are tricky because there are numerous doors and the instructors are usually at the center of the classroom. Lindoerfer said they are looking at electrifying the doors so when they shut, the instructor can push a button and lock the classroom from the inside. When that button is pressed, it will send an alert to the CU Boulder dispatch center, which will alert an officer.

Jaquish-rocha said classrooms that have an occupancy of fewer than 100 people will receive thumb turn locks and will not be electrified.

If there is a potential threat or active harmer alert sent out on campus, the thumb turn lock would give students or the instructor the ability to lock their door without needing a key.

“We want to not only make it accessible to the students and the faculty, but we want to make it a safe place and that’s the whole point,” she said. “I want people to go to class knowing that they feel safe in their classroom.”

The updates will occur over several years, Lindoerfer said. The goal is to start rolling out the non-electric hardware this summer and continue updates during school breaks. The electric door updates will be the second step of the process.

“We just want to be able to put these protocols in place to give at least another layer of added physical security,” he said. “It’s not going to be the best solution for every scenario, but it is a tool that is available depending on the specific situation.”