The Benefits and Challenges of Clery Act Compliance for Contractors
Educational institutions can be difficult for contractors to navigate
- By Julie Brown
- February 01, 2019
Every environment poses its own
challenges for organizational leaders
and their contractors to ensure
safety and security. Educational
institutions in particular can be difficult
for contractors to navigate. The various
rules and legal restrictions must be worked
into project planning and execution. As a
third-party entity, colleges and universities
must ensure contractors are reputable and
trustworthy, and do not pose a threat to students
or faculty. The Clery Act is an important
piece of legislation for all colleges and
universities to abide by to ensure the safety
of students, staff and visitors.
Established in 1990, the Clery mandates
that all colleges and universities receiving federal
funding must share information about
crime incidents on campus and report their
efforts to improve campus safety. In addition,
the institutions must inform the public of
crime in or around campus through an annual
security report which is due on October 1
of every year. If the institutions fail to report
the necessary statistics, they are fined and
their federal funding can be withheld.
Impact on Contractor Clearance
Just as the Clery Act increased expectations
for colleges and universities, it also added
guidelines and restrictions for contractors
employed by those institutions. When an
institution hires a contractor or third-party to
conduct work on campus, they assume
responsibility for how that individual acts and
behaves. Thus, educational institutions must
have comprehensive security and safety policies
in place to mitigate potential misbehavior
and ensure all third-party contractors remain
compliant and in ordinance with school regulations.
Before any work begins on campus,
educational institutions should be proactive
about providing contractors with compliance
resources that clearly outline what is and is
not permitted on school premises.
Similarly, contractors must conduct thorough
background checks on their employees
before they can be admitted on site. This
ensures that contractors are trustworthy and
there are no red flags on their record that pose
a risk to students or faculty. Additionally, these
employees must complete child protection
forms and adhere to related policies. In some
cases, escorts are required to bring contractors
across the campus, into the dorms or other
sensitive facilities requiring maintenance.
Before the Clery Act, an employee could
walk on campus without officials from the
school knowing anything about the person’s
history or possible public record. Now, many
higher education institutions utilize preapproved
contractor lists to increase worker
background visibility. This helps reduce risks
and more accurately account for all parties
involved. It also simplifies insurance processes
as pre-approved contractors’ insurance
coverage is already verified within the
college or university’s system.
Impact on Contractor Accessibility
One of the ways in which higher education
institutions ensure compliance with the Clery
Act is by implementing advanced safety and
security technology on campus. Colleges and
universities aiming to lower their crime statistics
often seek access control and visitor management
technologies, to help protect against
break-ins and unauthorized visitors.
Access control can regulate who is permitted
to enter specific buildings on campus such
as dormitories, sporting facilities and libraries.
It can also be integrated into main
entrance points throughout the perimeter of a
campus as this must be considered the first
layer of defense. To deter unwanted intruders
from entering a campus, access control
strengthens perimeter security and helps to
regulate the flow of people and vehicles that
enter and exit a campus. As a result, contractors
and faculty need to be entered into the
management system to obtain badges for both
campus and building access. Furthermore, it’s
also important to evaluate what buildings and
facilities a contractor can enter. For example,
granting access to lecture halls or sporting
facilities, but not dormitories.
Once permitted on campus, advanced
visitor management solutions let you track
visitors and monitor where they are within
the school premise. Beyond authorized
entry, badges or barcodes can track usage
statistics by specific visitors, and provide
documentation of visitor locations within a
facility. This allows property managers and
security personnel to know who is on campus,
and when and where they are at any
given time. Businesses can collect and easily
recall real-time accurate data of current and
pending authorized visitors and track visitor information to help monitor employee, visitors
and campus safety. Likewise, campuses
can leverage visitor management solutions to
ensure contractors are onsite, on-time and
projects are moving along accordingly.
Video surveillance solutions are another
technology that institutions take advantage of
to keep track of visitors. This technology is an
important security component to keep watch
over the diverse assortment of facilities and
buildings that comprise a typical campus community.
In addition to monitoring building
exteriors, pathways and student quads, video
surveillance can also monitor activity that
occurs inside a building or facility to detect
unusual behavior or identify an intruder. Coupled
with access control, surveillance can be
useful in monitoring activity throughout a
campus and identifying visitors who are not
registered within the management system.
Increased Opportunities for Contractors
Though the Clery Act poses some challenges
for contractors, including added processes
and lengthened project timelines, it has also
improved business for them in a few ways.
Because the legislation mandates certain levels
of security on campuses, contractors are
needed to install and maintain the necessary
systems. Electricians, network security staff
and more are all tasked with ensuring that
the institution has the most robust and upto-
date systems in place.
This is a departure from previous attitudes
about how a campus should operate. Prior to
the passing of the Clery Act, some people
disapproved of locked-down campuses with
heavy security in place. The act brought
increased awareness to the rate of crime at
educational institutions, largely altering public
opinion about implementing additional
surveillance and access control technologies
to help mitigate crime, and subsequently
growing the market for contractors in this
vertical industry.
The Cost of Non-Compliance
There have been many publicized examples
of well-known universities found to be noncompliant
with the Clery Act following incidents
that have occurred on campus premises.
This year, the U.S. Department of
Education issued the largest fine ever levied
under the act, $2.4 million, for upwards of 10
findings of Clery Act noncompliance from
one university. A key contributor to many of
these incidents is a lack of reporting by the
university on the criminal activity taking
place on campus, including failure to notify
law enforcement after becoming aware of
misconduct. Increased security technology
would be beneficial in cases like these to formalize
reporting processes and provide more
accurate records of who is on campus, where,
and at what time. Regardless of whether the
threat comes from a faculty member, student,
contractor, or otherwise, a secure campus
is key to preventing an incident.
Moving forward, it’s critical that colleges
and universities develop guidelines and regulations
that outline compliant practices to
be followed by all contractors. These terms
must be contractually agreed upon before
access is granted. Furthermore, education
will likely be a priority vertical for contractors
as institutions work to maintain compliance
with the Clery Act. Being informed on
the latest Clear Act regulations will streamline
the relationship between contractors
and institutions, and help contractors to
know what to expect when working on college
or university campuses.
While the legislation has made work for
contractors more complex, it has helped give
them visibility into institutions’ needs, particularly
during the fall, ahead of the recurring
October 1 deadline for Clery Act reporting.
Staying abreast of the latest regulations
for educational facilities can help contractors
improve their service and secure new opportunities,
ultimately helping make colleges
and universities a safer place to be.
This article originally appeared in the January/February 2019 issue of Campus Security Today.