Harford Community College Awarded Grant to Support Campus Safety

Harford Community College in Bel Air, Maryland has received a grant from the Maryland Higher Education Commission to fund improvements to campus safety. The $97,500 grant will enable Harford to install alert beacons in campus buildings. The beacons will act as a critical layer in the campus safety system, as they will communicate emergency messages to students, employees and visitors. While most of the campus community is registered for text message, email, and phone alerts, visitors are not always privy to these emergency communications that can save lives during inclement weather, a gas leak, or an active shooter situation. Additionally, students and employees do not always have their phones with them in classrooms or while walking through buildings, meaning they could miss vital information. The beacons will bridge the gap between campus safety personnel and visitors, ensuring everyone’s safety.

"It is crucial to have redundancy in any emergency communication system and to deliver notifications in a variety of ways to campus stakeholders," said Duane Williams, Director, Public Safety, Harford Community College.

The beacons will be mounted in public view and share information that can be read and heard by anyone in proximity. The installation project will take place over the next ten months, to be completed by June 2025.

This project was funded in whole or in part by funds received from the Campus Security Grant, a Grant program of the Maryland Higher Education Commission.

For further information, please contact Natalie Shaw, Director, Grants, 443-412-2160 or nshaw@harford.edu.