Safer, Smarter, Better: A Day In The Life Of A Higher Education Administrator

Safer, Smarter, Better: A Day In The Life Of A Higher Education Administrator
Resources

July 22, 2021

Resource: Blog Industry: Education, Higher Education
Tags: Higher Education, Vector LiveSafe, Vector LMS and Training Management

Connecting Content & Technology to Improve Campus and Community Safety

From industrial manufacturing to education and public safety, critical industries rely on Vector Solutions to empower them to make safer, smarter, and better decisions. In Higher Education, with so many students, faculty and staff members, administrators, and community members who can be impacted, it’s particularly important to have the right tools and resources to keep campus members safe during an incident. Our award-winning solutions are empowering thousands of colleges and universities across the country to make their campuses even safer and more inclusive. As part of our “Safer, Smarter, Better” series, here’s a fictional example of a day in the life of a school administrator, and the solutions that help her optimize her response to a safety concern on campus.  

A Day In The Life of a Higher Education Administrator

Here’s how Jane, a campus administrator at a university, leveraged Vector’s solutions to get the right information to the right people at the right time. 

A Student Misconduct Incident Is Reported

Jane is progressing throughout her workday when she is notified by Vector LiveSafe, our powerful safety communications platform and mobile app, that an anonymous tip has been submitted. She logs into the Admin Portal to further investigate and learns that there was an alcohol and substance misuse incident involving multiple students on campus during a student organization’s event the night before. 

As the designated campus official to respond to student misconduct, Jane is able to use Vector LiveSafe to gather additional intel:

  • Tip Management: Jane reviewed the tip submission, which included photos, videos, and location data of the misconduct incident 
  • Two-Way Chat: Jane had a few additional questions, so she utilized two-way chat to communicate with the user who submitted the tip. She was able to find out that information while the user was still anonymous 

In addition to the features above, Jane is also able to use the Vector LiveSafe Platform to:

  • Review Additional Tips and Manage Ongoing Tasks
  • Identify Potential Risk Areas on Campus
  • Broadcast Communications to Campus Members (including “Check-In” capabilities)
  • Add or Modify Safety Resources, Maps, and Policies within the App
  • Review Safety Analytics 

Immediate Response

Jane immediately begins the student misconduct investigation and review process through Vector EHS Management, an incident and safety management platform that allows her to track her progress as she meets with each student individually. 

Before arriving on campus, students are required to take annual prevention education through Vector LMS and Training Management. One of those courses is “Alcohol and Other Drugs,” which is designed to educate students on the risks of the abuse of alcohol and other drugs and to teach successful strategies for handling dangerous situations related to these substances. In addition to completing the course, students are required to acknowledge the university’s Alcohol and Substance Use policy (which can easily be set up through Vector LMS). 

After she concludes the student misconduct investigation and process, Jane found that each of the students had broken the university policies on alcohol use while on campus. With this type of misconduct, Jane had to administer sanctions, which required each of the students to take Vector’s “Alcohol and Other Drugs - Sanctions” course through Vector LMS. This course helps students better understand why they struggle with alcohol and/or other drugs and suggests avoidance strategies and other tactics that fit their personalities. Students will also better understand the negative effects these substances can have on academic performance, physical and mental health, as well as their social lives now and after college.

In addition, Jane utilizes Vector EHS Management to flag this incident to be reviewed by additional campus officials to better understand what led to this, which involved officials from Student Affairs and Public Safety departments. 

In-Progress Tracking

As the students participate in their required sanctions training, Jane is able to monitor progress and completion through Vector LMS. In addition, Jane is able to review the progress of the investigation into what led up to the safety incident through Vector EHS Management. They identified the location of the event as having been in a lesser-used space in a more remote building on campus. The administration elects to remove access to the facility from after-hours club usage and advises campus security of the change.

Resolution and Beyond

Jane and campus security use Vector EHS Management to review the data from this incident to optimize their response to future incidents. They evaluate other on-campus locations that are available for student-group usage and restrict those in less-populated areas of campus. Realizing students may not know about the spaces available in the student union and centrally-located library, Jane creates a customized course for student club leaders and faculty advisors on the procedure for reserving room space as well as guidelines for proper use. 

In addition to the features above, Jane can utilize Vector EHS Management for the following: 

  • Capture and analyze important data from the incident to improve future reporting
  • Optimize the response procedure for alcohol misuse with data from this incident
  • Better understand if this incident, or any incident, is a recurring theme and what risk it presents for the university

Creating A Safer, Smarter, Better World For Students, Faculty, and Staff.

Over 1,000 institutions of higher education nationwide trust Vector to help them keep their community safe. Our award-winning solutions allow these institutions to better address and respond to the complex challenges and issues they face today. From impactful and relevant learning and training to essential campus safety tools and intuitive platforms, we can help your institution protect faculty, staff, and students from threats, improve DE&I, remain compliant, and much, much more. Learn more about our higher education solutions.

*Please note that the above higher education scenario is an example as some solutions may not yet be available for specific industries or organizations. You may contact your Vector Solutions representative should you have any questions about the above solutions.

Want to Know More?

Reach out and a Vector Solutions representative will respond back to help answer any questions you might have.

Contact Us