Binghamton University has partnered with Genetec, a Montreal-based surveillance solutions company, to streamline capabilities and integrate its security systems into a single interface.

The company offers a variety of services, including video surveillance and new control systems, that clients can use on a single platform. Notable entities that use Genetec services include Heathrow Airport in London and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City.

By adapting the Genetec Security Center platform, the University will integrate data from its 1,635 surveillance cameras and over 4,800 access control readers into one system. A case study produced by Genetec found that the University possessed a “fragmented legacy tech stack” that did not allow communication between video management and access control systems.

“Intrusion detection, panic buttons, and mass notification systems were also siloed and disconnected,” the case study continued. “As a result, the university’s IT and security teams struggled with disconnected data, security gaps, and time-consuming manual workarounds.”

The platform includes Omnicast, a dynamic video surveillance interface allowing for improved incident response; Synergis, a systems operator for better controlled access to certain locations; Sipelia, a streamlined communications tool; Genetec Clearance, a management system for digital footage and other evidence; and AutoVu automatic license plate recognition. Other higher education institutions also employ Genetec services — Cornell University uses the AutoVu license plate software, while both Texas A&M and Brigham Young University operate their security systems with Genetec Security Center.

Managing unexpected large gatherings is also cited in the case study as a reason for adopting enhanced surveillance tools.

“Planned gatherings are welcomed,” Dave Martin, assistant director of security infrastructure and support at the University, said in the case study. “But the unplanned ones can sometimes get out of hand. Now, if a group hits a certain size, the video analytics tools preemptively alert us. We can confirm whether or not the situation is a permitted activity or needs to be addressed.”

The University released a B-Line Addition on Aug. 21, warning students against disruptive protests, camping on campus and using chalk or putting up posters without following University guidelines. The statement, signed by several administrative officials, said that civil dialogue workshops and planned conversations with “Student Dialogue Ambassadors” will help facilitate productive discussion around “controversial ideas within the boundaries of our policies.”

“Without the right to express ideas — especially controversial ideas — education and discovery are limited; dialogue is restricted and our capacity to educate engaged citizens is compromised,” the statement read. “For those reasons and our obligations as a public university to respect the First Amendment, we place a high value on freedom of expression, association and assembly.”

“No right, however, is absolute,” it continued. “Binghamton will not permit protest and expression that disrupts the University’s academic mission, interferes with the free expression of others or threatens members of the campus community or campus property.”

The debate around the parameters of protesting on college campuses has grown in recent years as students publicly demonstrate against the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. In May 2024, students established an encampment on the Peace Quad to stand in solidarity with Palestinians and call on BU to divest from the defense industry. The Trump administration has launched investigations into students at schools like Columbia University for participating in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

“As the Trump administration attempts to attack the First Amendment and scale up the U.S. government’s surveillance apparatus, we are dismayed at our university’s actions to scale up its own surveillance,” wrote Binghamton’s chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America in a statement to Pipe Dream. “Students deserve to live in safety. This means protecting our campus, but it also means a right to assemble and not be surveilled as though we are not welcome.”

“Students, faculty, and the university community will, of course, continue to protest against Trump and for Palestinian liberation and free speech in higher education,” the statement continued