Research Paper

The surveillance university

Student’s name

Institution

Introduction

Surveillance is practice in the universities to provide a safe, secure and healthy environment for students, staff, and other stakeholders. According to Wilson and Wells (2017), the practice of surveillance is to ensure that crimes related activities within the university can be detected and prevented on time. A study conducted by Saha and Neogy (2014), pointed out that the issue of surveillance in the university must address privacy and confidentiality of stakeholders. This has made it difficult for institutions to conduct optimal trace of activities within a campus. However, it could be easier to monitor every student and other people within the university through the use of CCTV cameras, and facial recognition but this had to be done concerning the privacy of students and other members of the university. This report, therefore, provides a recommendation on what should be done to balance the security and privacy of students and other university members.

Ideally, the installation of CCTV and the use of facial recognition software could provide the best level of monitoring activities in the university. Most researchers have pointed out that there are certain problems associated with the installation of CCTV and other surveillance activities in the universities and even in public places. According to Wilson and Wells (2017), the methodology used is difficult to conduct proper control evaluation. The information can be exposed and this could compromise the privacy of students. The use of facial recognition software and the monitoring of mobile phone communication are essential for securing university. But it is difficult to practice surveillance without violating the privacy of people. CITATION Kev14 \l 1033 (Beaver, 2014) pointed out that though the security of students and other stakeholders in the university is crucial, the privacy of students is more students because it is part of students' rights which must be protected by the university.

Monitoring Mechanism

Monitoring activities going on within the university is an important aspect of improving the security of students. The issues related to terrorism are critical and cannot be treated lightly and therefore, having effective surveillance would be ideal. The use of a security checkpoint at every entry in the university would be the best idea in ensuring that every person walking into the university does not carry any harmful material. As stated by Kittle (2013) checkpoints introduce thin surveillance at every entry to make sure everyone in the university is accounted for. The checkpoint will allow the university to know several people in the university and when an individual walks in and out. It, therefore, improves the security and safety of students and other people in the university. The application of facial recognition and CCTV cameras and monitoring of mobile communication are good concepts that the university must consider to protect the university from any attack. Since the Homeland Security Department has singled out the university for likely to be attacked, it would be of importance for the university to monitor student's communication and moving to identify suspicious students. Though mobile monitoring cannot be allowed by students and it is illegal since it betrays individual right to privacy, the use of communication surveillance to trace suspicious students would be of great importance to the university. According to a study published by Perrino (2018), monitoring students' activities on and off-campus is critical for improving security. Most universities monitor students' behavior and movement when on campus to ensure the security of the university. This is an effective strategy that can help the university to monitor activities of students and therefore, it could help to identify radical students. Without close monitoring of students, it would be impossible to detect radicalized students and therefore, terrorism prevention would not be achieved.

Moreover, profiling students would be of great help to the university administration to narrow down suspicious students faster. But it would be a violation of university culture and norms. However, the university can deploy profiling based on the early signal of questionable activities by students. Profiling could be discriminatory and could put the university in a problem with the justice department CITATION Ton17 \l 1033 (Bradley, 2017). However, evidential profiling would be welcomed. It is pointed out that some students from Bangladesh are working with organized groups to launch a terrorist attack in the university. It would be important for the university to identify students from Bangladesh and put them on serious surveillance CITATION Nei17 \l 1033 (Desai, 2017). Security of student’s come first for effective provision of security it would be essential for the university to conduct profiling in order to get the suspected students from Bangladesh. The best option for the university is to seek a court warrant to permit surveillance on students and profiling as an option of conducting an investigation. The judge would be willing to issue a warrant for the security of the university.

Mobile monitoring would be rejected by students and other stakeholders for fear of violation of students' privacy. Implementation of the mobile monitoring concept through a secret method without any student realizing would be the best option for the university to spy on every student without anyone knowing. CITATION Enr18 \l 1033 (Dans, 2018) pointed out that the federal government spies on people every day using different software and hardware and the practice has been used for decades. The National Security Agency (NSA) stated that the use of spy software and monitoring mobile phones of people randomly practiced in the United States to prevent the country from imminent attack CITATION Pet154 \l 1033 (Petterson, 2015). According to a report by the NSA, several attacks have been prevented due to the use of spy software and mobile monitoring technologies. Therefore, this practice can be adopted by the university and practice in secret to provide maximum security to students.

First, the university should create a back entry into students' phones for any student using a university's WIFI internet connection. Studies have indicated that most students use free wifi and LAN internet connection within the campus CITATION Oma15 \l 1033 (Omand, Bartlett, & Miller, 2015). This makes it easier for the administration to create a back entry, which can be used to monitor students’ communication when on campus. The facial recognition software should be used to identify people within the campus to help to track the movement of everyone CITATION Bea18 \l 1033 (McCaine, 2018). The use of facial recognition would help trace, to know where every student is doing every time and also to collect data related to friends and associates of students. Gathering this information will help the university to provide the effective monitoring of students, which is critical for the security of students and the university in general.

Recommendation

It is recommended for the university to install CCTV cameras in every classroom and the entire university as the first action to ensuring the students and other staff are protected. Though profiling of students is against norms and culture of the university and it is also illegal and discriminatory, the activation of profiling of students based on their original would be an option. Profiling helps in gathering data by narrowing the target to specific people rather than focusing on over ten thousand students. The university administration should investigate a partnership with the local police to identify the students who can be the culprit. Without profiling and working with the local police it would be difficult to track down a suspect which has been identified as students from Bangladesh. It is also recommended to use an internet platform to monitor students' activities online. The university should use its network infrastructure to monitor everything which students do online. The use of spy software to monitor students’ activities on Facebook and other social media would help in the prevention of attacks in the university. All these activities should be done within the framework of the law to prevent violation of the students’ rights CITATION Wel17 \l 1033 (Wells & Miller, 2017). To ensure that the privacy of students is not abused and the monitoring system set up is not misused, it would be essential for the university to have strict policies and regulations regarding the use of the system to ensure that students' information is not shared to the public. All the stakeholders would be required to come together to have an effective debate and to agree on the formula to use in monitoring students.

Conclusion

Balancing security and privacy is a challenge to administrations and government. For the university to conduct surveillance on students there must be appropriate regulations and policy to have such a system in the university. It is established that the use of CCTV, facial recognition software and profiling would be an ideal strategy to track and get suspected terrorists from Bangladesh. Therefore, the university needs to work the judicial or the justice department to get a warrant permitting it to conduct profiling, mobile monitoring, and other surveillance activities to protect students from any kind of attack.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Beaver, K. (2014). Information privacy and security requires a balancing act. International

Journal of Information security, 2-17.

Bradley, T. (2017). Finding The Right Balance Between Security And Privacy. International

Journal of information security, 2-15.

Dans, E. (2018). Surveillance In Schools: Where Is This Taking Us?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/enriquedans/2018/08/23/surveillance-in-schools-where-is-this-taking-us/#43319063bee7, 2-15.

Desai, N. (2017). Balance privacy and Security in digital agae.

https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/july-2017/balancing-privacy-and-security-in-the-digital-age/ , 2-15.

Kittle, J. T. (2013). A Study of Surveillance and Privacy Rights. Electronic Theses and

Dissertations. Paper 1170. , 2-15.

McCaine, M. (2018). Information privacy and security requires a balancing act. Journal of