Revamping Security on Campus
University of Central Florida (UCF) strives to protect one of the country’s largest educational institutions
- By Joseph Souza
- September 01, 2017
THE UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA (UCF), A PUBLIC
RESEARCH UNIVERSITY IN ORLANDO, FLA., IS ONE OF
THE LARGEST UNIVERSITIES IN THE UNITED STATES.
WITH MORE THAN 64,000 STUDENTS AND 12,000 FACULTY
AND STAFF SPREAD ACROSS 13 COLLEGES, 3
LARGE CAMPUSES AND 10 REGIONAL LOCATIONS, PROVIDING
PHYSICAL SECURITY CAN BE CHALLENGING. IN
AN EFFORT TO ENHANCE SECURITY ACROSS THE 1,415
ACRE MAIN CAMPUS AND ITS REGIONAL CAMPUSES,
UCF CREATED THE DEPARTMENT OF SECURITY AND
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT IN DECEMBER 2014,
WHICH COMBINED THE EXISTING OFFICE OF EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT WITH A NEWLY-FORMED OFFICE OF
SECURITY MANAGEMENT. THE NEW DEPARTMENT
WAS TASKED WITH ADDRESSING THE PROBLEM OF
DECENTRALIZED SECURITY AND KEY SYSTEMS, AS
WELL AS CONTINUING TO ENHANCE OVERALL SECURITY
THROUGH UPGRADES TO EXISTING BUILDINGS AND
CREATING PHYSICAL SECURITY STANDARDS FOR ALL
NEW CAMPUS CONSTRUCTION.
To tackle the problem of decentralized security, the primary focus
was to consolidate more than 2,200 cameras which were streaming to
58 recording servers, and to create policies and standards for where
and how they are installed, used and maintained. In addition, the office
had to address concerns about the proper retention and preventing
unauthorized release of nearly 1 petabyte of video being stored at any
given time. UCF’s access control was also disparate, with many different
technologies, card formats and a widespread use of physical keys
for more than 12,000 doors on the main campus alone. The varying
access control technologies and key systems sometimes made it challenging for university personnel to gain access
to certain buildings and rooms.
“I realized immediately that to start fixing
the problems, we needed a plan,” said Jeff
Morgan, UCF’s director of security and emergency
management. “I began with identifying
as many gaps as possible, and then planned to
hire dedicated staff to begin improvements.”
The current security team at UCF is small
but making an immediate and positive
impact. Jeff started by hiring an Assistant
Director of Security to lead the team. From
there, UCF has hired two additional professionals
from within their workforce who had
experience in both security and information
technology. The first addition to the team was
Jacob Hughey, in July 2015, to manage security
camera operations, maintenance and
projects, and to help address the problem of
having multiple recording servers in various
locations across campus. UCF has shown
their commitment to improving physical
security by funding necessary infrastructure
upgrades. Within just a few months, they
purchased and installed a new 3.0 petabyte
centralized server farm for the security camera
footage and upgraded their video management
software with the latest version.
In April 2016, Steven Freund was hired to
manage the university’s access control system,
work on converting disparate systems to the
campus standard system, and increase the
number of access controlled doors. He performed
the first software upgrade of the access
control software, which was three years behind
the latest version. Both Jacob and Steven have
implemented formal training for end users,
started coordinating all installations and maintenance,
and have formed strong partnerships
with UCF’s IT Team, which they feel is a critical
step moving forward.
This team has also been involved with
designing the physical security for all new
construction projects including academic
buildings, utility buildings, research facilities,
parking garages, the marching band practice
facility, athletics facilities and retail locations.
The team is designing the security for a new
Downtown Orlando campus with new academic
buildings, parking garages and a public
safety space. The office’s staff attends all construction
meetings from concept through
completed construction and works closely
with the architects, general contractors, electricians,
security integrator and other subcontractors
as necessary.
Some security professionals are fortunate
to have the opportunity to be involved in
helping build security into a newly constructed
building once in their career. The UCF
Security team has been involved in more than
10 new buildings and hundreds of minor
projects, and UCF is continuing to grow at a
rapid pace.
Looking to the future, Jeff recognizes the
need to proactively monitor security at UCF.
To accomplish this goal, he is designing and
building a Global Security Operations Center
(GSOC). Morgan stated, “UCF has a very
state-of-the-art Emergency Operations Center,
but during Hurricane Matthew in October
2016 and during many exercises, we realized
that we needed a dedicated location to monitor
and respond to security concerns as they occur
and provide real-time situational awareness.”
UCF is undergoing the physical and technological
design of their GSOC with two
video walls, three state-of-the-art workstations,
and interoperability with the UCF
Police Dispatch Center. The GSOC will have
the ability to monitor security cameras, guard
force operations, access control, and students
and faculty who are traveling internationally.
“During many of the recent international
incidents that have occurred, it was difficult
to arrange timely communication with UCF
students traveling abroad. UCF is increasing
its travel abroad program from 300 students
to 3,000 students in the upcoming year and
looking at having future campuses overseas.
We are creating this GSOC with that in mind, and putting technology and processes in place to actively monitor traveler
locations for natural disasters, terrorist attacks and political
unrest,” said Morgan.
UCF hosts many large special events, and the security team had to
come up with a way to provide a flexible security solution to enhance
the safety of the UCF community. For example, UCF hosts events such
football and basketball tailgating, as well as Spirit Splash, which is
UCF’s annual Homecoming week tradition. During Spirit Splash,
10,000 to 15,000 students run into the iconic Reflecting Pond, which is
adjacent to the university’s main administration building. For these
types of events, the team designed and built a mobile camera platform
to set up security surveillance in any location at any time. As the team
has strong local community police partnerships, they worked with
local law enforcement partners to build a wireless camera network.
UCF put this system to use for a political campaign visit by President
Obama as well as the Florida U.S. Senatorial Debate between Senator
Marco Rubio and Representative Patrick Murphy.
To make the wireless camera system work, they outfitted a lightly
used UCF broadcast truck to become their new Security Communications
Operations University Truck, which they refer to as “SCOUT.”
Since it was put into service, it has been used for multiple events not
only on campus, but also at the 2017 NFL Pro Bowl Game at Camping
World Stadium and the 2017 Daytona 500. The vehicle has a 50-foot
mast with two pan tilt zoom (PTZ) cameras, 4 deployable PTZs on
tripods, and 4 outward facing security cameras providing security on
all sides of the truck. The truck can run on a built-in generator or be
plugged into a 50 amp circuit. It has a public safety radio and campus
radio system, which can be used as a repeater to allow radio communications
to work, even without a nearby radio tower to receive and
transmit the signals. The communications capability was the result of
the security team working closely with their UCF Emergency Management
partners, specifically Joe Thalheimer, UCF’s Warning and Communications
Coordinator. This truck gives UCF a mobile security and
communications capability which can be used anywhere on any of
UCF’s campuses for events or in areas where there is a lack of adequate
security camera coverage.
The department isn’t stopping there. In addition to its numerous
accomplishments to date, they are evaluating and implementing a
License Plate Recognition (LPR) system to be installed around campus
to help support UCF Parking Services and UCF Police. They continue
to build their partnership with UCF IT, as many of the new technologies
rely on UCF’s network infrastructure. To make sure the security
devices perform well on the wired or wireless network and meet
expectations for quality and reliability, UCF IT now bench tests and
field tests every new model of camera and card reader before using
them on campus.
“We are partnering with our key hardware manufacturers to communicate
our requirements and goals, as well as to be some of the first
to evaluate new products as they are announced,” said Morgan. “These
partnerships have allowed us to maintain and enhance the interoperability
of our security systems. UCF’s vision is to continue growing the
Department of Security and Emergency Management to meet the
existing and increasing university needs, and we are thankful for all the
support they have demonstrated.”
Today, having the right team to conduct security management at a
large institution of higher education is critical. As technology advances,
it is important to stay on top of trends and utilize its full potential
as a force multiplier. As threats change, so should
your security posture, and a well-trained, prepared
and equipped security management team
will have the right solution.
This article originally appeared in the September 2017 issue of Campus Security Today.