Quinnipiac University Balances Security and Freedom with PERSONA Locksets

Personal freedom and a safe learning environment are hallmarks of the college life experience. Maintaining this culture is a challenge for school administrators, who are responsible for creating a safe atmosphere that fosters a sense of freedom, yet encourages students to act responsibly. The ideal campus for students and administrators is one that offers students easy access to school facilities while maintaining a degree of accountability. Creating this delicate balance of security and freedom requires a locking solution that can adapt to any situation. Quinnipiac University found it with PERSONA.

 

Located in Hamden, CT, Quinnipiac houses approximately 3,000 of its nearly 8,000 students in campus residence halls. The University has undergone a series of expansion projects in recent years to accomodate its burgeoning student population and was in need of a locking system that could handle the school's ever-changing needs.

The school put together a team of residential, security, vending, IT and facilities personnel to investigate locksets that would fill the needs of all university departments. Specifically, the locksets needed to operate with the existing campus one card system that serves not only as a student ID, but is also used for on-campus and off-campus transactions including dining, vending machines, laundry and equipment checkout. Another goal was to improve security, provide accountability, and eliminate the costs associated with metal key systems.

Accountability

“Crime isn’t a major problem on our campus, but still, we like to take steps to protect our students," said Keith Woodward, Associate Director of Facilities. "If something does happen, though, we want a lockset we trust. Ultimately we chose PERSONA and the software features of its lockest which include audit trail capabilities and the ability to determine if a door was propped open, "

Because PERSONA integrates easily with existing ID cards, the locks were a natural fit for Quinnipiac’s Q-Card system. “The lock withstood some abusive tests, but the one thing we liked best about the PERSONA lockset was the audit trail feature,” Woodward noted. “If an incident occurs, this feature allows us to interrogate the lock and determine who entered the room or if a door was propped open; it generates accountability.”

Convenience

Quinnipiac students now have the convenience of a single card to complete many common campus transactions and also to enter residence halls and other campus buildings. Access control privileges are pre-defined and allow the school to assign appropriate access rights to end users. The locks are opened using a standard high- or low-coercivity magnetic stripe card, with tracks one or three open for encoding. This configuration provides maximum programming flexibility, allowing security access information to be stored on tracks one or three and leaving track two for encrypted ID information.

Soon, the campus will begin installing PERSONA Wi-Fi locksets which operate off the existing 802.1 1b network already on campus. This technology allows the locks to be networked into a centralized campus control system without having to run wiring to each door.  The Wi-Fi capabilities will allow Quinnipiac to have greater flexibility in the academic areas on campus.  It will allow the school to utilize their card technology for access outside the traditional residence hall areas of check-in, holiday periods, and check-out.

 

Products

• Locksets- SARGENT, PERSONA