Aikin also says that the lock systems create a visibility to what is occurring at a door, including a student’s dorm door. The visibility helps the remote, designated user to determine what kind of service is needed at a particular door.

For example: if an intruder picks up a lost student identification card, gets into the dorm and tries to find the card owner’s room by trying to unlock multiple doors, the remote user can deactivate the unlock feature on the card.

“The solution is that the culprit won’t be able to get in,” Aikin says. The lock system sends a to security “telling them that someone has this card, and they’ve tried to enter [multiple] times in a certain amount of time. They will shut off access to the credentials and notify the police.

“The good thing about the credentials is that they’re canceled upon the knowledge of the card being lost, and the owner might not know it.”

Aikin also says that the lock system also performs audits of what has occurred at selected doors, such as a break-in.

“They can see who is at the door, who has been at the door, what time,” he says.

He also says that being able to see this audit online and in real time enables campus security to react immediately, instead of waiting for an offline product.

“The key thing is having that real time communication of that audit event and being able to know in real time that a door was propped open or someone else gained access other than the normal user,” Aikin says.

Aside from protection, the electromechanical key systems are making students’ and facility members’ lives easier.

One example of this is through the reduced number of student lock outs.

With traditional locks and metal keys, students who are locked out of their rooms often have to wait for resident assistants to come and unlock their doors.

But, with the electromechanical key systems, “students can send a text message [to the system] to open their doors,” says Sarah Ledwith, Product Marketing Manager for CBORD.

Ledwith also says that resident assistants and other pre-approved staff members can also be granted temporary access to the elevated “master key” privileges through their own ID cards, if needed.

“You can set how long a pre-approved person can use the master key privileges [on the system],” she says. “For example, you can set the time for ten minutes. You have to state why you need access to the master key privileges, such as if it is being used for a lock out. A text message goes to the system and the access is activated.”

A text is also sent to a supervisor informing him or her who activated the master key privileges, along with why he or she needed those privileges. All occupants of the room or suite also receive a text or E-mail explaining when and why “master key” access was granted.

“It’s more secure than the ‘we were here’ sheets often left behind by maintenance staff,” Ledwith says.

Aikin says that facilities will also have an easier time accessing buildings on campus with the electromechanical key systems.

“There was a concern for the balance between security and efficiency,” he says, especially when facility members have to sign out a key, fix something in a building, return and sign in the key, and sign out another key for the next project.

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