Published April 2020
Campus security assessments can be valuable for colleges and universities of all sizes. A regular check-up, looking closely at hardware and technology, provides a holistic view of security health across campus. This can be especially helpful when it’s time to upgrade your credential platform.
New technologies and innovations in mobile are among the reasons higher ed teams are evaluating their campus IDs and looking for a more secure and convenient approach to the student experience. Wherever your institution is with its credential technology, a security audit can help your team make informed decisions. Below are tips and a checklist to help you get started. For easy reference, download this page as a PDF.
An ideal place to start is by bringing together all the stakeholders. This can include facilities teams, card office personnel, security directors and IT departments but will vary by school.
Tip: Involving everyone upfront can help improve communication and collaboration. This can save time and money.
With the team in place, you can audit the current state of the campus. What type of campus IDs are in play today? What about readers? Listing everything that interacts with the campus ID and physical access control system during your audit will help paint a clear picture of your current state—which will help you plan for the future.
We recommend creating an exhaustive list. The more you know, the better prepared you will be. Here’s a chart to get you started, but each project is different, so add to it as needed.
Tip: It’s helpful to document if the hardware or technology is interoperable or a closed technology. Open solutions mean more choices in technology, hardware and manufacturers and a more convenient path to adopting new technology as it becomes available. Read more.
The next step is a discovery conversation about your future state and how to get there. Now that you understand what you have today, can you identify hardware and technology that needs to be implemented to get to your future state? Does everything need to be adopted all at once, or can you transition over time? Hopefully this chart identifies what needs to be replaced, removed and added. Stakeholder collaboration can help identify potential challenges that might arise along the way.
Evaluating campus credentials
Let us guide your team as it evaluates campus card technologies and plans for the future.
The smarter approach to campus security
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