Controlling Human Risks

Mar 1, 2003 12:00 PM, By KATE HENRY

The University of Rhode Island (URI), the principal public undergraduate and graduate institution for the state of Rhode Island, is a growing school that today serves nearly 14,000 students on its main Kingston and three other Rhode Island campuses. Keeping pace with the security needs posed by the nearly 4,000 students on the Kingston campus is Rich D'Andrea, veteran locksmith and access control expert with the Department of Housing and Residential Life.

D'Andrea, who has worked for URI for more than 20 years and whose access control oversight may soon become campus-wide, has seen many access control wins, losses and changes in that time, and he has come to appreciate the role of technology in mitigating the human risk factor, which is especially prevalent in the social and somewhat communal setting of college housing.

The Human Risk Factor

D'Andrea says the biggest access control risks in a university setting today are much as they were 20 years ago: Students giving out or sharing their access codes (previously keys), losing their cards (previously keys) and not reporting it; and propping doors open for convenience.

The difference, he notes, is the effectiveness of technology in mitigating and redressing those risks and liability issues.

“Because we're housing, we tend to do a lot of crisis management, so we need to be able to change access privileges very quickly with minimal risk,” D'Andrea explains. “If a code has been shared, for instance, and then a personality conflict of some sort emerges, or if a roommate causes trouble and the other roommate wants them out, we need to be aware of the situation in order to rectify it by quickly changing lock and access privileges,” he says.

The access control solution that works for URI is tried and true — a combination of PIN-protected Locknetics programmable door locks and other locks for interior spaces such as dorm rooms, offices, storage spaces, and a WAPAC card and reader access system from Synergistics for certain exterior doors. Both the PIN-controlled lock and the access system provide audit trail capabilities. The combination has served URI consistently well in terms of reliability and cost-effectiveness since its installation, D'Andrea says.

“Electronic access control in all its forms has dramatically changed what we do for the better,” he notes. “We can do our work more effectively because we need to do tasks less frequently, so we can be much more efficient.”

The technology has led to the mitigation and resolution of numerous incidents at URI over the years, according to D'Andrea: saving property, ensuring student safety and maximizing staff resources.

A recent incident, for example, resulted in the discovery of a thief: “This incident happened within a tight timeframe,” D'Andrea recalls. “A student swiped a card to access a dorm, from which he then stole a laptop. Then he left and used his card to access and run into another dorm. We were able to reference the transaction log from the reader, which showed this student with access times that coincided exactly with the theft. Once the police showed the student the log, he confessed.”

Another incident did not turn up theft but did save investigators valuable time and resources that might have otherwise been wasted. Says D'Andrea: “Two roommates left for the weekend to return and find that both their TV and VCR were missing. They promptly reported them stolen, yet the lock audit trail showed that someone had used one of their codes to enter the room. One roommate then recalled that she had given her code to a friend who, it turned out, had ‘borrowed’ the TV and VCR in order to watch a movie.”

D'Andrea notes that the system also presents an important personal safety feature: “trespass access code” capability. If a student has been involved in an incident having to do with a residence hall or has a conflict with a resident, D'Andrea's staff can move that student out of the building and/or alter their access privileges so that that hall is off-limits to them. D'Andrea and a small staff handle lock re-programming at regular intervals throughout the year and on an ad hoc basis — tasks that were much more time-consuming in the old days of keys.

Collaboration and Expansion

Student enrollment is on the rise at the university, according to D'Andrea, and expansion is evident everywhere: A new sports complex has been completed, a number of buildings built in the 1950s are nearing the end of renovations that will transform them into new housing facilities, and historic buildings such as the also-under-expansion Ballentine Hall School of Business, are all secured in part using lock and access card combinations. Yet the access control function at URI may be leveraged even further beginning as early as this summer.

D'Andrea explains that he currently oversees access control for Housing while facilities management oversees much of the access control that secures administrative and classroom buildings — but the functions may be consolidated this summer, in which case D'Andrea would take on campus-wide maintenance oversight as needed.

Dining Services would retain its current role as student ID card administrators — cards serve not only as ID and access tokens but also as meal token and library cards — and would add a new software program to randomize issuance of student access codes and subcodes.

D'Andrea says his overarching access control goal is eventually to integrate standalone locks with a network-based access system, but budget and logistical issues associated with retrofitting hard-wiring pose challenges. He adds that having a software solution that allows multiple users to work at once would be a further boon to efficiency.

Working toward attainable goals is important, D'Andrea adds. “A realistic goal is a combination of networked exterior doors — not every door — say two or three per building, and standalone interior doors.”

He emphasizes, however, that the current access control solution in place is cost-effective and efficient for the time being. In fact, a student survey with an 85 percent return rate showed 80 percent of students favor the current lock and access system, he says. Their only complaint? It's one heard far and wide among access control users: being unable to leave doors open. There's that human risk factor at work again.

For The Record

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kate Henry is an Annapolis, Md.-based writer and regular contributor to Access Control & Security Systems.

ABOUT THE COMPANIES

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

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