New Cooley law school facility gets subtle security

Mar 1, 2001 12:00 PM

Digital surveillance system provides live remote access of schools

Throughout its newly renovated 10-story building in downtown Lansing, Mich., Thomas M. Cooley Law School maintains discreet security with a low-profile electronic access control system that provides various levels of control, easy re-keying, and quickly accessible audit trail information.

Michigan's former Chief Justice Thomas E. Brennan, who is now the school's president and chairman, founded Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 1972. It now has more than 1,700 students, making Cooley the largest independent (not affiliated with a university) and third largest law school in the nation. It has been fully accredited by the American Bar Association since 1978. The current freshman class comes from 45 states and eight foreign countries. The school is named in honor of Thomas McIntyre Cooley, a 19th century constitutional commentator who was admired by the school's founder.

The school opened in a small building and expanded into several additional locations that included a former Masonic Temple and JCPenney building. In 1995, the school purchased the former commerce center building to consolidate the academic, administration and operations employees under one roof. Major renovations included replacing the existing glass and aluminum facade with brick, and changing the interior from 14 floors to 10 in order to achieve higher ceilings, more space for mechanical systems, and higher floor loading capacity. Seven of the ten stories were completed in December 1999.

New building warrants a new security system

Security at the school had developed from a key system.

“To cut down the number of keys an employee carries, we designed a master key system that grouped employees into specific work areas. The problem was that most of the areas had door locks with as many as five master key fittings,” says Raymond J. Brennan, senior vice president for operations. “Along the way, the school moved to the Schlage Primus system, which offered higher security with a patented keyway and blanks that could only be obtained from the manufacturer. “We still have the system in our library building, and it works well,” Brennan reports.

However, the school's growth and its move to the new building necessitated a more flexible level of security control to allow or deny access to students, faculty and staff members at various times and to specific areas. Another objective was to minimize or eliminate the need to re-key locks when personnel changed or keys were lost. The system also had to be unobtrusive and not detract from the open, light feeling of the new quarters.

The school formed a partnership with Haussman Construction Co., which became the construction management team. Raymond Brennan co-chaired the team, along with Dennis Burt, president of Haussman Construction. They decided to install Schlage's e.Primus electronic key control system. The e.Primus system is a non-hardwired, stand-alone, programmable keying system that combines a door-mounted lock with electronic components and memory needed to package the system functions in a single unit. Its features include re-keying, audit trails, and time functions.

The system uses a plastic fob resembling a standard key blank except for a computer chip contained in a stainless steel cap attached to the end. Each key has a unique serial number. To lock or unlock a door, a user places the e.Primus key in contact with the lock's touch receptor. Once contact is established, the computer in the lock scans the electronic key to determine if its serial number is contained in the lock's authorized list of keys.

The locks run on four AA batteries that have a capacity of 80,000 activations. A 10-year battery mounted in the circuit board within the lock itself supports lock memory.

The system operates with Rapidkey key control management software, which allows the system administrator to configure the database to needs. From a computer, the administrator can track the facility's users, add and delete users, specify time functions, and maintain secure key control electronically. The software runs on Windows 95/98 and includes a communication cable for use with a laptop computer, which is used to update the database in individual locks and collect audit trail information.

The audit trail can prove whether someone was in a given area at a specific time. Brennan recalls an incident when someone thought a theft might have occurred, but the audit trail showed that no one else had entered the office in question.

All interior doors designed to be equipped with locks have the Rapidkey system. “Originally, we put them only on office doors, but when we got used to the system, we installed 50 more on all secure interior doors. With this system, we don't have to have security people on duty 24 hours a day,” says R.J. Brennan Jr., director of construction projects for Cooley.

Currently, some 200 keys are issued, including a limited number given to people in other buildings who need access for meetings or other purposes. Gus Graham, The Eisen Group, which represents Schlage Lock and other IR Security and Safety products, says that more than 300 doors are now equipped with the electronic locks.

R.J. Brennan says the elimination of time-consuming re-keying also has been a big factor in the locks' success.

“Recently a professor lost his Rapidkey, and it took the building superintendent only a few minutes to change each door that he had access to and install Rapidkey data. Instead of a major time-consuming lock change, it took the building superintendent about 15 minutes to complete the job, says,” he says.

To complete the security system, the school has also installed a proximity card system on exterior doors for after-hours building access and CCTV cameras in locations such as elevator lobbies and stairwells.

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