Residence Hall Safety and Security

At Colorado State University, personal security and safety in and around campus residence halls has been approached proactively.  Personal security in a student’s residential living space has the highest priority.  Residents should feel most safe and secure in their rooms.  To travel from outside a residence hall to a residential room, residents’ will have to successfully pass through at least three access control points.  Guests must always be escorted beyond public areas into the residential living area of any building.

All exterior doors in the residence hall system are monitored for proper position and alarmed; all external fire tower doors are designated “Emergency Exit Only” and will activate an alarm if opened.  In addition, all doors to the residential living areas have access control.  All community bathrooms have electronic key pad entry.  Finally, front desk coverage in all residence halls is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and on-site security patrols have been increased.  Your personal security is a top priority to CSU and to be successful it must be a top priority of yours.  This page contains information on steps we have taken to ensure safety and security in the halls and also provides resources and information for you to be proactive about your personal safety.

3 Levels of Security
Fire Safety
Police Patrols
SafeWalk
RamRide
Tips on How to Be Safe On or Off Campus

-Three Levels of Security

• Level 1  Exterior Doors and Corridor Doors off of Lobby
• Level 2  Interior Corridor Doors that lead to Student Rooms
• Level 3  Student’s door to their room

Exterior residence hall doors are being monitored by CSU staff via an electronic access control software system (B.A.S.I.S.) purchased and licensed from Best Access Systems a division of the Stanley Corporation based in Centennial, Colorado.

The purpose of the B.A.S.I.S. system is to monitor the door position of all exterior doors of the residence halls.  Currently there are more than 350 exterior and interior doors that are controlled by the system.  The software monitors to see if any of the exterior doors are open and if anything abnormal is occurring, an alarm will sound and the door in question is identified to the office staff on duty.  Exterior and interior doors in the halls are accessed by proximity readers and residents are assigned electronic proximity keys that are specific to their hall.  The software also provides an immediate record of all authorized entries and attempts to enter.

All of the resident halls have Level 1 and 2 electronic securities, with both external and internal corridors “online” for the security software to monitor.  The internal corridor (Level 2) opens to between 16 and 20 rooms.  These corridor doors have proximity card readers and electronic strikes and require a proximity key unique to CSU.  Level 3 doors are to the students room and require either a proximity key or hard key (also unique to CSU) to enter the room.  The proximity key issued to the students allows access to all Level 1 and 2 doors within their halls other than the emergency exit doors which cannot be used as an entrance.

Six of the halls have community bathrooms on each floor that are equipped with key pads.  To ensure that these bathrooms are not open to the public students are given a number to allow for secure access to the bathroom on their floor.

Fire Safety

There are more than 1,000 devices, such as smoke and heat detectors, pull stations, fire sprinkler flow switches, and notification devices as a part of our life safety systems. Additional features include the networking of all the fire alarm panels to CSUPD that display a detailed graphic map which will pinpoint the exact location of the device in alarm or trouble in the building. PFA (Poudre Fire Authority) also has access to on screen pinpoint monitoring. Durward, Edwards, Parmelee, and Summit Halls all have fire suppression systems and new installs are scheduled for one a year until all existing buildings are covered.

Housing & Dining Services fully inspects all fire extinguishers once a year. Every six months, 100% of the devices on the fire alarm systems and fire suppression systems are tested for full functionality and performance.

All fire safety precautions are regularly checked and maintained by our Safety and Security Coordinator Ken Quintana.

Police Patrols, Staff Contribute to Security

Colorado State University has a highly self-sufficient housing staff of 42 full-time trades people. These include carpenters, locksmiths, electricians, control technicians, fire alarm specialists, plumbers and painters. Personnel from the Colorado State University Police Department are utilized for extra patrols around campus. The campus police are a fully certified law enforcement agency by the State of Colorado. Uniformed officers’ patrol the housing grounds and halls daily and nightly.

All of the residence halls have front desks that are staffed day and night. There are custom control panels in the five buildings with card reader access that allow front desk workers to see at a glance if there has been a security breach.

SafeWalk

This is a service provided by the CSU Police. Community Safety Officers will walk with students, staff, and faculty to anywhere on campus in the evening hours.

http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/CSUPD/safewalk.html

RamRide

This is a carpool service provided by ASCSU. The service offers free nonjudgmental rides to CSU students from Old Town (downtown Fort Collins) to campus/students’ houses. It operates on Thursday nights from 10pm to 2am and Friday and Saturday nights from 10pm to 3am. RamRide does not operate during school holidays or summer break. For more information please go to http://www.ramride.colostate.edu/

Tips on How to be Safe On/Off Campus

The Office of Women’s Programs and Studies has a web page that offers tips to students on how to feel safe in different situations:

• How to feel safe on campus
• At a Party
• On a Date
• Running and Walking Safely
• Living Off-Campus
• The Facts about Sexual Assault
• Safety Contact Numbers
• Safety Links

http://www.colostate.edu/programs/WPS/Safety/safety.htm