Well-Educated in Access Control

Mar 1, 2005 12:00 PM

Cambridge College, founded in 1971 and an independent institution since 1981, offers an environment in which working adults can continue their education. Today it serves almost 600 undergraduate students and more than 4,000 graduate students on two campuses in Cambridge, Mass. At the main campus in Cambridge, tenants with a long-term lease occupy part of the building, with administrators, faculty, students and tenants sharing a parking structure.

According to Bruce Grigsby, director of facilities, it was necessary to secure the college's entrance and the parking garage. “We needed to make all the traffic flow into the building through the reception doors instead of coming in the back door,” he says. “Only the faculty and administration should come in the back door.”

The college has installed IR Geoffrey Access Control Version 5, an electronic access control system that verifies credentials and enables administrators to change or update access information. The computer-based system uses proximity card readers to verify credentials and unlock the doors for authorized holders.

The same system controls access to the garage. “To unlock the door you have to wave your card in front of the machine,” Grigsby says. “The exit door also has a card reader.”

Because there are tenants as well as faculty and staff who require access, the system must be flexible enough to accommodate the needs of both groups.

“We share the two parking levels with tenants in the building,” Grigsby says. “They have cards that allow them to get up in the elevators after hours, and one elevator operates with the card reader 24 hours a day so they can get in.”

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