For generations, Lake Forest College has offered students something rare. A historic liberal arts campus tucked within a quiet suburban community, just a short train ride from downtown Chicago. A place where intimate class sizes, tree-lined paths and century-old buildings create a setting that feels both timeless and personal.
But today’s students expect more than beauty and tradition. They expect a campus experience that matches the world they live in: open, connected, modern and safe.
"The college is one of the premier higher education institutions in the country, and we're able to now talk to students and their families about what a safe and secure environment in which they will be living, working, and studying,” says Michael Sosulski, president at Lake Forest College.
Continuing to meet students’ high expectations has been a central priority for Lake Forest College, leading to a recent campus-wide initiative to modernize its physical security system and elevate the everyday experience of students, faculty and staff.
“We want our students thinking about academics, their co-curriculars and their relationships,” says Marisue Lacher, vice chair of the board of trustees. “Nothing is more important than the security of our students, faculty and staff.”
And while security has not been a particular issue for this campus, Lacher notes that leadership wants to stay ahead of technology modernizations because, as she puts it, “Families want to know that their child is safe when they’re off to college; this is their second home.”
The decision to modernize campus security was not isolated to any single department. It became a coordinated effort across the entire College. Current student government president Liam Thumser credits Lake Forest College administration for collaborating with the student population to modernize and augment the campus’ security technologies. In fact, he notes that along with the Board and donors, the students felt so strongly about the importance of this initiative that they voted to fund a portion of this security modernization project with discretionary funds.
Lake Forest College and Siemens have partnered on campus infrastructure projects for more than 60 years, and this most recent modernization project drew on that shared commitment.
For a campus with historic buildings, varied architecture and a deeply rooted identity, this partnership mattered. Modern systems had to blend seamlessly into a setting that holds both history and future ambition.
"The biggest concern in higher ed today is the balance between openness and security," says Ravi Agarwal, vice president for information technology and chief information officer at Lake Forest College. "Colleges thrive on collaborations and data sharing, yet ensuring our infrastructure evolves without compromising security is both our challenge and our mission.”
With a comprehensive understanding of the college’s goals and insights from the Board, key stakeholders and students themselves, the project scope of work encompassed the following:
The result is a unified, intelligent security environment designed around the way students live and learn and how faculty teach and conduct research on campus. Through close coordination between Siemens engineers, college staff and contractors, Agarwal notes that the entire modernization was completed smoothly and on schedule and was accomplished within a three-month window — with no change orders.
He goes on to say that “Cybersecurity and data protection were top priorities from day one. We wanted to ensure that every connected device, every access point, every system tied to this project aligned with our enterprise security standards. Siemens systems integrate seamlessly with our single sign-on and network segmentation and provide secure authentication and encrypted communications across the entire infrastructure.”
For students, the impact is immediate. They experience a campus where movement feels easier, late-night walks feel more supported, and academic and residential dorm spaces are more accessible and responsive to their needs.
“The best part is that students will use these tools in different ways,” Thumser notes. “It’s a great way to feel safer on this campus at any time of the day or night.”
Faculty and staff share that confidence. Public safety teams now have better visibility into what is happening across the campus, and IT gains platforms that align with the College's cybersecurity standards and integrate securely into the College’s broader digital infrastructure.
“You want to create the best possible environment for your students to learn, your faculty to teach and your staff to carry out the important work they do. The very bedrock of that is the sense of safety and security – and none of that can happen unless you have outstanding partnerships with organizations like Siemens, who can help you with the technology that makes it all possible,” says Sosulski.
Lacher concurs, adding: “We chose Siemens, and they have been an incredible partner right from the beginning to help us plan, implement and get this project done on budget and on time.”
With its investment in modern security technologies and its long-standing partnership with Siemens, Lake Forest College has strengthened the core of what makes its campus thrive: safety, community and the freedom for students to focus on becoming who they want to be while feeling safe at home.
In short, the College has honored its history while preparing for its future. Looking ahead, the College plans to expand its technology platform to include Building X Security Manager, which will unify security data and enable integration with other campus building systems, including building automation, fire and energy. In the end, aggregating the data in this way will provide greater transparency for facilities teams and students alike for broader insights into campus operations and efficiency
“We want to evolve as a digitally empowered liberal arts institution,” Agarwal says. “Technology enhances student experience, informs decision making, and strengthens our sense of community, and so we will continue to advance our analytics and cybersecurity capabilities. But most importantly, we want to keep technology human-centered and focused on our people.”
