Action Plan IMPACT: Improving physical safety infrastructure on campus
The safety and well-being of everyone at UPEI is what makes it possible to learn, work, live, and take part fully in campus life. That's why the University is responsible for taking reasonable steps to keep people physically safe, while still respecting their privacy and dignity. Better security infrastructure, including the careful use of cameras in public and common areas, is one part of meeting that responsibility.
As part of UPEI’s ongoing work to build trust and create a safer, more inclusive campus, the University has been moving forward with recommendations to improve physical safety infrastructure. The UPEI Action Plan, developed in response to the UPEI Review (Rubin Thomlinson report), includes a commitment (Action 3.3.2.3) to review campus lighting, safety poles, and security cameras in Year 2 (2025–26) and implement recommended improvements in Year 3 (2026–27). These improvements are part of a broader set of Action Plan commitments intended to strengthen student and community safety and the University’s prevention of and response to harassment, sexual violence, and other forms of harm.
That review is now complete, and additional security cameras have been identified as an appropriate safety measure in certain public exterior locations, such as parking lots, and interior common areas, including hallways and building entrances. Installation has begun in exterior locations and in new and existing buildings. No cameras are being installed in classrooms, offices, or in private areas.
While the installation of additional security cameras is important to enhance the physical safety of the campus community, UPEI recognizes that it has raised important questions about impacts on individual privacy. Campus safety and individual privacy are both important institutional responsibilities. The University’s responsibility is to implement appropriate measures to protect students and other members of the campus community while ensuring that those measures respect privacy and include appropriate safeguards. As a result, UPEI has engaged its Access to Information and Privacy Office to conduct a review and assessment of the additional security cameras.
UPEI is committed to using security cameras responsibly to support campus safety, while respecting individuals’ privacy, limiting the collection of personal information and implementing appropriate safeguarding measures. The use of security cameras at UPEI will be administered in accordance with applicable policies and procedures, including those governing privacy and security. This includes ensuring that the collection, access, use, retention, and safeguarding of information are appropriate to the safety purposes for which the cameras are used.
The purpose of these improvements is to enhance physical safety while upholding the principles at the heart of the UPEI Action Plan: trust, transparency, inclusion, and safety. Physical safety infrastructure is one part of the University’s broader commitment to creating a campus in which students and other members of the UPEI community can participate safely and in which the University can effectively prevent and respond to harassment, sexual violence, and other forms of harm.
We continue to tell the stories of important progress on the UPEI Action Plan, under the “Action Plan IMPACT” banner. Articles share how the Action Plan implementation activities are being operationalized, becoming entrenched in our culture and living on long past the plan—making real IMPACT. To submit your own Action Plan IMPACT story, contact communications@upei.ca. To view the last Action Plan IMPACT story, click here.
