5 Access Control Tips To Keep Your College Campus Safe

Here are 5 keys to assembling access control solutions for keeping your campus safe and sound.

January 19, 2015 Jessica Kennedy Leave a Comment

Invest in electromechanical lock systems

Colleges have the option of investing in electromechanical lock systems to replace their traditional locks. Some solutions enable appointed users to lock specific doors through the internet or touch commands. These solutions can also assign an individual a temporary master key function via a mobile device for when a student is locked out of his or her room, or if a student needs access to a lab late at night. Plus, electromechanical lock systems are cheaper to manage in the long run compared to traditional locks: a new metal master key system can cost up to 10,000 dollars.

Granting mobile access

For colleges with BYOD initiatives already in place, mobile access control solutions are an easy additive for the network. Mobile access control solutions may come in app form or as software, and enable students to use their smart phones as a key to unlock on-campus buildings.

Call on your campus card office

Schonzeit says that a single campus card office is a college’s best defense at keeping access control centralized. That way, access control strategies are managed by one source in one area, instead of by multiple departments and buildings.

“You can’t have different buildings and different departments running their own systems,” Schonzeit says. “That is number one. You should have centralized management of your access control in your campus card office. Many times, your access control directors are IT departments for the campus, and you always have a campus card office.”

Photo by Stanford University.

Insure your network

Schonzeit says colleges should secure their own networks when it comes to access control. He says that secured networks will develop a tough defense against emergency situations, such as inclement weather.

“During Hurricane Sandy, cell phones went down,” he says. “What didn’t go down was your own personal networks if you lost power. I would say secure your own network yourself.”

Look to the Cloud

For colleges that need to invest in access control technology on a tight budget, Schonzeit says colleges should entrust their information to the Cloud. He says Cloud-based security will keep your college’s information locked up for a small dollar amount.

“Look to the Cloud and Cloud-based security,” Schonzeit says. “That’s the future. The storage of data is getting very expensive and no one wants to do it.”

Remember the days of swiping a key card over a square reader to get into your dorm or unlock a lab?

Actually, you don’t have to – those days are still here.

While key cards aren’t disappearing any time soon, it is still a good idea for colleges to take a look at their current access control strategies.

It might be time for your college to restructure its mass notification plans, or trade its old-school door bolts for modernized electromechanical lock systems.

Some colleges are even taking access control to another level by investing in apps for students to use to unlock doors with their smart phones, or upgrading their network to the Cloud for security data storage.

Other colleges are utilizing physical security check points, such as turnstiles and campus card offices to make sure their access control is up to par.

Gabriel Schonzeit, CEO of IDSecurityOnline.com says tight access control solutions are key to keeping colleges campuses safe.

He says he’s a strong believer in ID cards as a secure method of access control on campus.

“If you’re the only person walking around without an ID card on you, you don’t belong,” he says. “If you implement the technology, which is very easy to implement…I think that it can make a big difference.”

Schonzeit also says colleges shouldn’t get overwhelmed if they need to change their access control solutions. They might just need a dust-off from an access control company, or just a quick reconfiguration.

For colleges that have to install new technology, Schonzeit says that new access control solutions can be inexpensive, easy to install and maintained to have a long life expectancy.

“There’s a lot of technology out there that is scalable and you shouldn’t need to replace anything for five to seven years,” he says. “You don’t really need a whole system overhaul. You might just need to call someone like us.”

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Jessica Kennedy

Jessica Kennedy is an editor at TechDecisions Media, targeting the higher education market. Jessica joined the TechDecisions team in 2014 and covers technologies that improve teaching and learning.