Security was the topic of the Academic Senate meeting May 5 after an evaluation done by the District of Safety and Security Committee posed a need for security improvements.
The evaluation highlighted that the Riverside Community College District as a whole operates with multiple non-integrated security systems that are out of date. The security improvement proposal provides a roadmap for upcoming security measures to be implemented.
Riverside City College will be the first in the district to implement a campus wide speaker system that will be placed on four parts of the campus. They will be located near Evans Park, the Digital Library, the Cosmetology building, and the Math and Science building. This speaker system in the school will be integrated with the Rave mass notification application to help facilitate communication during emergencies.
This security plan also describes that RCC will implement cameras that are integrated and that function properly.
“Half of the cameras don’t function in the capacity we want them to, they don’t function together.” says VP of Business Services Kristine Di Memmo.
Another item that was discussed is the emergency phones on campus, “they cost about $20,000 a piece and they have been used zero times.” says Di Memmo.
The school is in the process of deciding whether to keep these emergency phones. The emergency calls that were logged only came from people using their personal phones.
Key card infrastructure for faculty was also discussed, including training for faculty pertaining to security infrastructure that is already on campus.
“We were told we didn’t have money for training at first, we have a keypad on our building, and we don’t know what it is,” says Library and Learning Resources Senator Sally Ellis.
The improvement plan also illustrates that after RCC has tested these security measures it will be implemented district-wide in Moreno Valley College and Norco College.
“We’re really trying to standardize things across the district, so we can be more efficient and effective.” says Di Memmo.
Most of these security measures are envisioned to be completed by the end of summer.
