With over 18,000 students, the Academy of Arts University (AAU) is the largest private school of art and design in the country. Unlike other universities that have several buildings contained in a single campus, AAU has buildings spread throughout the city.
When Michael Petricca, VP of Campus Safety at the Academy of Arts University (AAU) in San Francisco, first considered the available options to enhance the overall security of the educational institution, it was easy for him to pinpoint the important aspects to consider. The main priority was to reduce crime on campus. With over 18,000 students, AAU is the largest private school of art and design in the country. Unlike other universities that have several buildings contained in a single campus, AAU has buildings spread throughout the city.
“I felt crime on campus was an issue when I first started here,” Petricca said. “We don't have green spaces like traditional universities and that presented a lot of problems. On the other hand it was also a unique opportunity. So the first thing was the decision to reduce crime on campus, and second I had to find an integrator who saw my vision and was ready to implement it in a cost-effective manner.”
The university had administration and classroom buildings as well as residence halls, dining facilities and computer labs. Fine art galleries, open to the public, offer more than 70 exhibitions each year to showcase student creations in painting, sculpture, jewelry and fashion. Yet another museum building houses a unique collection of rare and vintage automobiles worth millions. Being in an urban setting, the institution had to be wary of damage to the property and its people. What Petricca had in mind was a single system that could lock down the entire campus in case of an emergency.
That was when he came across Dave Chritton, CEO of the San Francisco-based Microbiz Security Company. “I checked out several local and national integrators who provided the service I wanted. I chose Dave Chritton who has had a business in San Francisco for decades, much like the university itself,” Petricca said.
Honeywell Security’s security management system was recommended as it offered a way for all the facilities to be managed from a single command center on campus that was staffed around the clock.
Chritton, on his part, recommended
Honeywell Security’s security management system as it offered a way for all the facilities to be managed from a single command center on campus that was staffed around the clock. In a case study by Honeywell on the subject, Petricca said that at the beginning of each semester, students are provided with a dual technology card that can not only be used for access to AAU buildings, but also be used at point of sale terminals at food services across the campuses, as identification to board free citywide shuttles that the university provides and even for time and attendance. The card could be disabled with one click if a student fails to pay tuition or drops out of class. At the end of each semester all student cards are turned off until enrollment begins again for the next term.
But implementing such a system did not come without challenges. According to Chritton, “the main challenge was learning their layout, which consisted of over 50 buildings. They wanted to manage many different technologies like card access, video systems and alarm systems.”