Fairleigh Dickinson University/Flexible and Professional Service

Founded in 1946, Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) has grown quickly to become New Jersey’s largest private university. 10,000 students from 32 countries attend the University in four different locations. Two main campuses are located in Florham Park and Teaneck, New Jersey; FDU also maintains satellite campuses in Oxford, England and British Columbia, Canada.

The College of Florham occupies the former country estate of New York socialites Florence Vanderbilt and her husband Hamilton Twombly.   Built to the lavish standards of the Gilded Age, the estate was the 100-room Georgian mansion, Hennessey Hall, and featured grounds planned by famed landscape designer Frederick Law Olmstead, who also designed New York’s Central Park.

Today, the 178-acre campus is home to 1,500 residential students and serves an additional 2,000 commuters.  The estate has been reconfigured for academia; the historic Orangerie is now a sunny library and a student lounge makes use of the wood-paneled formal billiards room.   In addition, the community is able to enjoy the beautiful setting for a full schedule of arts, cultural and sporting events hosted by both FDU and community organizations such as Opera at Florham.

To keep the grounds and both the student and visiting populations safe, The College of Florham has its own public safety staff, but in the spring of 2008, FDU contracted Securitas to provide supplemental security on a seasonal basis. 

While semester is in session, Securitas officers cover security booths at each of the campus’s three entrances during the morning and early afternoon hours.  Officers greet visitors and guests, check student IDs and issue vehicle permit passes.  “Everyone gets stopped,” says Glenn Gates, Fairleigh Dickinson’s Assistant Director of Security.

Contracting out this service means that the FDU public safety officers are able to concentrate both daily and long term issues. “Having the Securitas officers gives us the ability to be self-sufficient and have more officers available to cover campus activities during the busy day shift,” notes Gates.

That being said, the Securitas officers are a critical component of FDU’s security team and, in fact, provide the public with their first impression of campus security.  “We were given the opportunity to select the uniform for our Securitas officers,” says Gates.  “That’s a nice feature.  Their appearance sets the tone for how people perceive public safety.”  Even more important is the professionalism of the officers wearing those uniforms.  “The officers are visible – they stand up at the booth - professional and personable.  This is a very busy campus, and one of our biggest concerns is to screen out people who don’t belong.  We encourage the officers to ask questions, probe a bit to see why these people need to be here.” 

Initially, FDU chose Securitas because of their ability to provide consistent but flexible service; during the summer, the campus closes two of the gates and doesn’t need the Securitas officers.  But Gates praises the company’s commitment to customer service.  “We work very closely with our account managers.  When we are up and running we talk once a week to go over any personnel issues and to keep the lines of communication open.”

“Securitas is a well-known company with a lot of resources;” concludes Gates.  “They have a level of depth and experience to handle what they are doing.”

  • Print page

  • Email this page

  • Share this page