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Key card system could be installed in all residence halls

Campus officials are working on a plan to install key card systems in all residence halls, which could allow dorms to be locked during an emergency.

The key cards, known as electronic access cards, already are used in Emmons Hall, where residents must swipe their student IDs to gain access to the living area of the dorm. Snyder and Phillips halls also are equipped with the key card technology, but it isn’t being used.

“The security of everyone is very high on the university’s list of priorities, and we will continue to do all in our power to ensure that we are providing safe and secure facilities,” said Angela Brown, director of University Housing.

Brown said the transition to access cards will be made gradually during the next several years as other residence halls are renovated. She said because officials don’t know how many doors will be equipped with the key cards, they haven’t established a cost.

Once the system is implemented in all university residence halls, officials will have the ability to lock down any hall on campus in the event of an emergency, said Dick Sigelko, manager of information and technology for Housing & Food Services.

“The readers are all run by computer, and to lock down a hall would not be a big deal,” Sigelko said. “You would just go in and tell it to put all the readers in a particular hall on lockdown and it would turn from a public building to a very private building.”

Sigelko said the process of making student ID cards compatible with access card technology will take place gradually. Incoming freshmen will be issued the new cards for several years until all students have one, he said.

There are about 700 electronically accessible doors scattered throughout campus, Sigelko said.

While students will need their ID cards to enter living areas at all times under the new system, the nonresidential part of residence halls will remain open to the public during the day, with a night receptionist monitoring who enters the hall between midnight and 7 a.m., Brown said.

“We have academic units, classrooms, offices and late night dining, and so we’re trying to balance the need to provide additional security with the activity level in each of the residence halls,” she said.

Published on Wednesday, March 26, 2008