Rec Center Gives Biometric Readers a Workout
California State University, Fullerton uses biometric readers for access, time and attendance reporting.
Assuring Only Authorized People Enter the Center
“Although our Titan Recreation building is only a little over a year old, we started using the biometric system about 1 ½ years ago so that everyone could start getting used to the system,” says Willer. “Today, about 2,500 people go through the turnstiles each day.”
According to Willer, in the first semester of the 2008-2009 school year, approximately 10,000 people were enrolled over a two week period. At the start of the second semester, the university enrolled approximately 2,500 people per day for three days.
“We can get large numbers of people through the doors quickly,” says Willer. “We had an evacuation recently where we needed to move approximately 300-400 people out and into the facility. The hand readers were able to handle this high volume.
“We can also track who is in the building when,” Willer adds. “For instance, we once had a problem with some thefts in the locker rooms. Once we knew when the thefts happened, we could check on who was in the building during those times. From this, we could denote a pattern of the same people being in the facility each time the thefts occurred. We quickly narrowed down our list of suspects to stop the crimes.
“The HandKey readers also help us with risk management,” Willer says. “To be a member of the Recreation Center, enrollees must sign a waiver and other legal documents. However, non-members were getting around this requirement by simply using a member’s card, putting the University in a liability position. Today, only those that are supposed to be in the building get in.”
According to Willer, when considering which biometric to use, they bounced back and forth between the Schlage HandKey reader and the Schlage FingerKey reader, which scans fingerprints.
“For political reasons, we selected the hand reader,” avows Willer. “We just did not want to get into discussions over fingerprint technology. We’re glad we did as the students accepted the hand readers without hesitation.”
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