As Debra Wooding strides along the sidewalks and through the doors of Longwood University daily, she walks assured of her safety. After all, she works behind the scenes in the Office of Integrated Security Systems handling every faculty member and student’s safety here on campus..
The three main things that the Office of Integrated Security Systems handles are the access control system, the video surveillance equipment and the alarm monitoring systems. With 6,500 people and 562 doors in the system, it is Wooding’s job to make sure that each and every member of the Longwood community has the correct access, to the correct buildings, at the correct time.
“Every project that’s done on this campus has my cameras in it, and my doors in it. This office decides where we are putting these security measures,” stated Wooding.
Not only does Wooding give each student access to their buildings and residence halls, unlock particular buildings at certain times for activities, fix broken door monitors, dispatch help when alarms go off, make sure off-campus contracted workers are secure and assist in investigative cases, she keeps us safe by implementing new technology and systems in case of emergencies.
Coming up in December, Longwood will be doing a mock lock down which will allow Wooding to determine how long it takes to lockdown the entire campus. From there, the necessary changes and improvements can be made for overall safety.
“I didn’t know this existed, but it makes me feel so much safer knowing the building access is being monitored,” said Taylor O’Bier, a Longwood student.
Although many universities use the same Lenel OnGuard system that Longwood does to monitor access controls, Longwood is ahead of the game with our LancerCards. While there is a magnetic strip on the back of each LancerCard, the dining hall is the only place that uses it. Longwood cards have microchips imbedded in the plastic, which allows us to hold the card in front of a monitor to be received rather than having to swipe, whereas most schools still use the swipe method.
“Some people could see it as an annoyance or too far, but for me being a parent, I’m glad I can’t walk into a residence hall, or any building for that matter. I’m glad I have to call my child to let them know I’m here and to come let me in. I think the university does a great job,” said Kelley Seymour, a Longwood parent.
When asked what Wooding wanted the student body to know, she replied: “I think the students need to know that we’re not sitting here watching you, but you need to know that this is a tool… If something happens to you, or something happens in your building, I want to have that extra tool that will help us pinpoint who it was and what actually happened.”
