Beginning January 2018, the Campus Safety Department will be implementing a number of procedural changes to better secure Calvin’s campus and protect our community. These changes are a result of lessons learned from incidents at other higher-education institutions as well as suggestions from multiple emergency preparedness strategies.

These changes include the following initiatives:

Securing the outer perimeter doors of campus

This strategy is based on studies that have found when encountering a locked door, someone with ill intent is more likely to forego their actions than to forcibly enter a locked space. Because of this, we will be securing entry doors on the outer perimeters of campus while maintaining card-access for all students/faculty/staff and other approved constituents. It is important to note that limited exceptions will be made for significant public events. In addition, inner perimeter and main entry doors will remain unlocked during normal business hours.

Affected door locations can be seen in the image below, marked with an "x"

Increasing security of high-value areas by limiting key access to spaces controlled by card-access

This change addresses the anonymity of key access and the risk of lost or stolen keys being used to gain entry to a space without rightful permission.

Over time, many interior door keys have been lost/stolen/improperly assigned. The result is a significant risk of misuse and unauthorized access of sensitive spaces in academic buildings. Now that card readers have been installed/upgraded in a number of locations, allowing key access to those areas would diminish the increased security that was an important goal of upgrading our access control system.

Currently, we receive on average 100 “Door Forced Open” alarms per day. The majority of the alarms we receive are unnecessary/errant alarms due to someone using a key to enter the space. If a true “Door Forced Open” alarm were to occur (such as someone tampering with a door to gain entry), it might be overlooked due to the sheer number of forced door alarms received.

With the use of card readers on doors, we have access to a generated log of every entry into a space. With the use of a key to gain access, we have no indication of who has entered that space.

The practice of limiting key access and only allowing ID card access to spaces with card readers is the industry standard in higher education. We want you to know that this will not remove currently held access from any student/faculty/staff, but it will change the nature of how one accesses a space. Emergency personnel (security and maintenance) will retain the ability to key into card access spaces if there are no other entry options available.

Increasing security of high-value areas by keeping card-access spaces secured

One of the greatest concerns any higher-education security force faces is doors being propped open. In fact, the tragedy leading to the implementation of the Jeanne Clery Act started with a door that was propped open. As an example on our own campus, we receive an average of 118 propped door alarms each day.  We hope to reduce this number by 90%. If we are unable to reduce the amount of propped doors alarms, we plan to implement a local audible alarm that sounds until the door is shut. 

While we understand this may come as an inconvenience during implementation, we firmly believe that these actions will help make our campus an even safer place to be. If you have any questions regarding these upcoming changes, please contact the Campus Safety Department at safety@calvin.edu.  Thank you for your continued assistance in keeping our campus secure!