$97K Grant Will Boost Safety At Harford Community College With Alert Beacons Installed

HARFORD COUNTY, MD — Bel Air's Harford Community College 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 and are designed to 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 aware of emergency communications that can save lives during inclement weather, a gas leak or an active shooter situation. Students and employees do not always have their phones with them in classrooms or while walking through buildings, college officials said, meaning they could miss important information.

"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 of 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 in the next 10 months and should wrap up by June 2025.