Fairleigh Innovative

May 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Randy Southerland

Fairleigh Dickinson University is the largest private institution in New Jersey with 10,000 students pursuing higher education on two campuses in the northern New Jersey towns of Madison and Teaneck. Fairleigh Dickinson also has a branch campus in England where it was the first American institution to own a college. The university's history of academic innovation dates back 63 years.

To keep up with growth, the university has invested heavily in technology to create a modern, streamlined card access system to serve students, faculty and staff.

One of its biggest challenges came when the university's Information Systems and Technology Department was deciding what to do about two legacy access control installations and a food service application — all operating independently.

In a situation common to large institutions, university officials faced the monstrous task of keeping up with thousands of metal keys to residence halls, academic buildings, offices and administrative facilities. Even when a student or employee lost a key, someone had to come out, re-key the lock and create a new key set. The same thing happened if a forgetful student left at the end of a semester without returning a room key.

“We wanted to integrate these systems and create a true one-card system for students,” says Lane Goldstein, operations manager for the IST Department.

The goal was to give students a single card to serve as their identification, to provide access to residence halls, to speed them through the cafeteria meal line and to create a debit function to store money to pay for photocopies or vending machines purchases, among other things.

Tying the pieces together

Goldstein and other university officials formed a committee to consider the options offered by card system providers.

“Basically we worked backwards,” Goldstein says. “We decided to use Best Access Systems for ID production and the card access system. Then we began pursuing a one-card vendor — a company that could manage the system transactions.”

CardSmith, Basking Ridge, N.J., was retained to handle the system's transaction functions — largely because the company could also integrate seamlessly with the Best system. The company offers a turnkey campus card service featuring transaction functions customized for each client with integrated marketing, operations and cardholder support services. The university thus eliminated the need to own or operate its own card system.

A student information system provided by Datatel, Fairfax, Va., each night downloaded essential data on students, faculty and staff into the Best application.

“The Best access control system then assigns users an identification card and grants them access levels based on their demographics and what they need,” Goldstein says. “Staff members are given access to staff areas, students have access to student areas, and residents are given access to their residence halls.”

From that location a file goes into the one-card vendor application, which takes all card encoding information and filters it into a separate system. This program allows the students to log on and deposit funds. It also allows various university vendors to operate card reader terminals to use with the cards.

Pick a card

Although Fairleigh Dickinson had previously invested considerable resources into two other access control systems on campus, the committee chose the Best system for the new venture.

“We liked their on-line access control system and the idea that they were heavily partnered with Lenel Systems,” Goldstein says.

B.A.S.I.S. (Best Access Systems Integrated Solutions) integrated access control, ID card management, CCTV and alarm monitoring into a single software management package. Using Microsoft's 32-bit Windows 2000 operating system, its modular design allows for easy upgrades without replacing software.

After initially installing the B.A.S.I.S. ET system, Fairleigh Dickinson is now in the process of upgrading to an enterprise version.

“The system allows us more flexibility internally, which at this point we need,” Goldstein says. “It also allows for redundant servers, which is important to us from an IT standpoint.”

An asset of the system is its ability to perform customization in areas such as scripting. As the project unfolds, each student and employee will receive an ID card. More than 5,000 of these enhanced cards are already in circulation with more to come as additional phases of the system are rolled out.

Students and general staff members are issued a three-track high-coercivity magnetic stripe card provided by HID Corp. For access into administrative computing facilities and secure areas, faculty and employees issue a HID DuoProx, combining proximity technology with a three-track magnetic stripe.

The cards are produced using a combination of printers from Fargo Electronics Inc. and Eltron units produced by Zebra Technologies Card Imaging Division.

With legacy systems long gone, all previous cards are no longer functional. However, getting everyone in to pick up the new, improved cards has been difficult. Those who need them for their daily activities — students in residence halls and employees who need to open secured areas — were quick to show up. Those without a pressing need have been slower.

“By next year we expect the number to be up to between 7,500 and 10,000 just based upon where we are adding access control and how we are compelling people to move into it,” Goldstein says.

Opening doors

A benefit of the new system is a reduction in the number of metal keys in circulation on the two campuses. Building access now uses on-line card access, and residence halls require off-line access using a card swipe.

“The goal is to eliminate as many metal keys as possible when it comes to access control,” Goldstein says.

While a number of doors still need to be converted, more than 700 have already been switched to card access using Best Access electronic access controllers, reader interfaces, and magnetic card readers.

The university's public safety department monitors doors from its central station. Although the university currently possesses a CCTV network, the system has yet to be integrated with the Best system.

“We're in the process of evaluating it, but we haven't switched over yet,” Goldstein says.

Reducing the number of keys and replacing them with cards will allow Fairleigh Dickinson to more effectively monitor comings and goings of people into the buildings. While an overwhelming majority of this information will go unused in the system, it could be useful to track down perpetrators of crimes such as vandalism by generating activity reports.

“We have used the card access system in conjunction with our video surveillance system to find vandals,” Goldstein says. “We have used it to track people who said they were in one place, but were actually somewhere else when an incident occurred.”

Students like a system that makes it easier to replace a lost access card, or to get back in faster when they are locked out of their building. The campus security department monitors each building with CCTV and a call box located at the front door. If a student is locked out of the building with no access card, he can place a call to the central station operator, who can open the door after completing an identification procedure.

It has also proven to be an asset for both the residence life department and for the university's public safety department. The number of lost keys is down, and anyone who loses a card can have it replaced quickly. It is no longer necessary for a locksmith to come out and re-key a cylinder.

“So the locksmiths are finding that they have a lot more time to spend on repairs rather than nuisance calls,” Goldstein says.

Overcoming difficulties

Older buildings in many colleges and universities can present challenges to wiring for access control. At Fairleigh Dickinson, the problems were mitigated by a system that is IP-addressable.

“Wherever I could get a network drop, I could have the system,” Goldstein explains.

In addition, all the university's buildings have fiber-optic cabling running to them. It was not necessary to install wiring for the system.

One of the biggest challenges was the need to retrofit older mechanical doors. In the past, a door might have stayed propped open most of the day before being closed and locked. Whether it closed smoothly didn't matter. However, in order for the access control system to work properly, the same door has to close with a tight fit.

“So it was tough getting (the) facilities and public safety and residence life (departments) to understand that it is not just the cost of installing card access on the door,” Goldstein says. “There might be a cost of repairing doors, replacing doors, what kind of doors do we have — hollow metal vs. solid core and wood vs. metal.”

While moving to a one-card system has not been inexpensive, university officials expect the costs to even out when one takes into account the labor required to maintain a mechanical installation. With no desire to be a profit center, the driving force for Goldstein and his team has been providing better services to the academic community.

Best of all, the system was installed and maintained without the addition of a new department and using only one full-time employee.

FOR THE RECORD

ABOUT THE COMPANIES

For information, circle the Reader Service number (listed below) or visit securitysolutions.com

BEST ACCESS SYSTEMS	120
CARDSMITH	121
DATATEL	122
FARGO ELECTRONICS	123
HID CORP.	124
LENEL SYSTEMS INTL. INC.	125
ZEBRA TECHNOLOGIES	126

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