ByGeorge!

Sept. 17, 2003

GW Launches Access and Security Initiative

Cross Functional Team to Provide Expert Advice and Funding

By Thomas Kohout

Offices in search of additional building access and security devices may soon turn to a new cross functional committee for expert advice and dedicated project management and even financial assistance to get the job done. The newly formed Cross Functional Team for Installation and Maintenance of Access Control and Security Devices will be available to provide a fast and efficient approach to improving campus security.

The team is bringing a customer service approach to administering security services, providing one-stop shopping for security equipment needs with centralized, dedicated project management and expert advice to evaluate building access and security device requirements. The mission of the team is two-fold: to review the requests for additional security and access control devices, or their maintenance, from department heads, and to validate those requests. Once a list of jobs has been approved, the team will prioritize them, one against the other.

“We’ve tried to keep this as simple and straightforward as possible,” said John N. Petrie, assistant vice president for public safety and emergency management, who co-chairs the team along with Nancy Haaga, director of auxiliary and institutional services.

In January 2002, the Treasurer’s Office formed the core group for the cross functional team with representatives from Risk Management, the University Police Department, Residential Property Management, Parking Services, GWorld, Information Systems and Services, Facilities Development, Facilities Management, and Architecture, Engineering and Construction to establish a more efficient means of providing building access and security. The team examined the existing process to understand how those kinds of projects get approved, funded and implemented. A defined prioritization process along with the criteria to establish priorities were drafted, and an online requisition form (available at gweb.gwu.edu/mod/sec/) has been developed to speed the flow of requests.

“Previously there was no real coordination of any of these efforts,” recalled Haaga. “They were all going on simultaneously. Everybody was fighting for priority.”

Under the new procedures, department heads may submit an online request to start the screening process. A number of variables will come into play during the review, but according to Petrie the key criteria is what is being protected, why people are being restricted from an area and who needs access. The team then will determine what is the most effective means of meeting the request. This expert advice is an important improvement over previous procedures.

“Members of the University community know what they want to protect, but they often don’t know the best way to go about it,” Haaga acknowledged. “Often, departments that need additional security don’t know how much is enough, so they ask for Fort Knox when all they need is a better lock.”

Rather than employ a card reader or a surveillance system, which require hard-wired connections and programming in addition to the cost of the equipment and its installation, some University departments have succeeded in using cipher locks on top of the line door handles, for about one-tenth of the cost.

“The onus of those kinds of decisions and analyses will no longer fall on department heads,” Haaga added. “Why should they have to know what’s best? They just want security. Now it will be the responsibility of the team to look at the request and make that recommendation and offer a price and a timeline for completion.”

Once the request has been validated and prioritized, the job order will go to a point of contact within Facilities Management, where it will be contracted based on the priorities list.

“The point of contact at Facilities Management will follow and oversee these projects from start to finish,” said Haaga. “That is something we’ve never had before.”

The team has a limited amount of funds for this fiscal year, allocated by the Treasurer’s Office, for projects on the University-wide priority list. The University’s revenue-producing auxiliaries — Parking Services and Residential Property Management — contributed a “tax” up front so the team can centralize the screening and prioritization. Because these departments produce their own cash flow, and fund their own access and security needs, they won’t be in competition with the departments for funds.

“In terms of access control and security devices for issues of installation and maintenance,” explained Petrie “we will fund everything we can on the priority list until we run out of money.”

He added that the information collected by the group, in terms of the volume of valid requests the cross functional team receives over this academic year, will be used to establish follow-up funding.


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