Card, mobile credential, payment and security
Saddleback College, a 700,000-square-foot campus located across 200 acres in South Orange County, California, hosts a student body of 25,000 each term. Open since 1968, the college has more than 500,000 alumni who have received degrees in over 300 different disciplines.
Another number the college has become aware of recently is 1,300 – the number of door openings campus-wide.
“We have just over 1,300 openings and not two of them are alike it seems,“ says James Rogers, Senior Director of Facilities and Maintenance Operations at Saddleback Community College. “Wood, glass, hollow metal, side panels, glass inlays, stadium gates, storage doors – you name it, we have it.”
The reason the facilities and college police teams at Saddleback know this number is because the college will soon install access control devices on nearly every opening on campus. “Every single one of them except for the restrooms,” Rogers says.
The catalyst for the upgrades are simple: ensure the emergency response process on campus is as streamlined, effective and efficient as possible; and upgrade from a brass key system that had become cumbersome and increasingly less secure.
“There is no mandate to do this,” says Carol Hilton, former Vice President of Administrative Services at Saddleback Community College. “Nothing has changed from a regulatory perspective. But when we self-assessed the campus in terms of safety and access control, we realized there were unique requirements we wanted to implement to make the building as safe as possible.”
The first challenge to address at Saddleback was to reign in the number of brass keys being handed out each term to faculty and staff. Hilton estimates the college has been attempting to manage around 1,000 keys at any given time due to all the unique openings on campus.
An exterior access point at Saddleback College's new sciences building.
“In an institution of this size, with standard key locks it just becomes very hard to keep track of all of those keys,” says Hilton. “Over a period of decades, it became impossible to manage every key.”
Further, when implementing an access control solution that would change from physical keys to a credential on an ID card, the school wanted to ensure that it could manage the credentials from a centralized system. That way, access could be set and revoked on a semester-by-semester or even a daily basis.
And perhaps most critically, the college wanted to significantly upgrade its safety and emergency process in the event of an active shooter or forced entry scenario.
“The ability to quickly secure the school is really the primary reason for this,” stresses Hilton. “So, when we look at replacing keys with card credentials, and we look at the physical locks, and how it all works with our video surveillance system, it all comes down to the ability to know what is going on across campus and lock down buildings appropriately.”
To begin the transition to a safer, more secure campus, Saddleback installed 163 Corbin Russwin PoE (Power over Ethernet) locks and exit devices in its new science buildings.
The solution specifically utilizes the Access 700 PIP1 intelligent lockset, which offers online access control and can utilize magstripe, PIN code, and HID Global's multiCLASS SE technologies for customized access control options.
The college was previously using brass keys for facilities access, but has moved to proximity cards with the new installation. Once Saddleback has upgraded the entire campus, the multiCLASS SE readers will allow for the campus to move toward smartcard and Bluetooth credentials as part of the college’s long-term planning.
[blockquote align='left|right|full']The ability to quickly secure the school is really the primary reason for this... It all comes down to the ability to know what is going on across campus and lock down buildings appropriately.
Also implemented in the solution are EK1 Retrofit Kits, which add the access control capabilities of ASSA ABLOY’s leading IP-enabled solutions to existing exit devices. This also makes it easy to upgrade building security without the hassle and expense of replacing the entire exit device.
Tying the system together is software from IMRON, which allows for total access control by the Saddleback’s security team.
“By moving to proximity cards and managing those three buildings with new access control devices, it brings our need for brass keys in that area down to just three,” says Rogers. “That was incredibly nice to issue just three keys because we knew that we had already improved access control.”
Less brass keys means more accountability for users, explains Rogers. Permissions can be set by administration, cards can be disabled immediately, and video integration allows cameras to automatically zoom in on situations where an access control point identifies an irregularity or problem.
Further, the facility now has more individual control as it allows faculty and staff to control access as they see fit. For example, a lab door can be opened with a card, then either left unlocked or relocked while the staff member is inside.
The system can be locked down from a central location by campus security, and buttons inside classrooms allow faculty to trigger an emergency alert on their own. The system also results in time savings for staff as it requires less key management, and with the use of the integrated technology, less need for human surveillance in some scenarios.
“From a policing perspective, this really frees us up to focus on other areas of the campus,” says Patrick Higa, Chief of Police at Saddleback Community College. “We’re taking advantage of the technology to do some of that work and its allowing for more time on our staff to prioritize other areas of safety and access.”
The system has been so effective in the science buildings the school now has plans for three-year build out to an additional 1,500 locks.
"The simplicity of the solution that ASSA ABLOY offered us, and the way it has worked so far, makes us ready to move forward with making this campus 99% controlled by their access control solutions,” says Rogers. “We went with the sciences buildings first because it was newer construction. But we now have a plan to retrofit the remainder of the campus, and that is very exciting.”
The goal for Saddleback is to standardize all of their unique openings with interoperable access control. And with ASSA ABLOY offering a broad number of brands and solutions that work together, the school has developed a plan around minimizing systems and physical keys.
“We talk about how every opening is unique,” says Hilton. “But as far as the system is concerned, in a few years, every opening can be secured appropriately in exactly the same way.”
George Washington University's dining services is contemplating an expansion to its food truck offerings by including a new initiative for its satellite, Virginia Science and Technology Campus.
As reported by the GW Hatchet, campus officials began a pilot program this month that has deployed food trucks to university's Virginia Science and Technology Campus to determine whether or not the trucks should become a permanent dining option. The initiative sent food trucks to the VSTC campus, which sits in a northwest suburb of D.C., twice per week.
GW Dining began talks with VSTC campus officials late in 2017 to determine the best times to deploy food trucks to the satellite campus. Officials have scheduled the trucks, worked through logistical challenges and assessed the pros and cons of the program over the last few weeks.
A surge in food-truck popularity in the heart of D.C. led, in part, to students and faculty on the Virginia campus expressing interest in having similar dining options made available at VSTC.
“While not a traditional urban location with high-volume pedestrian traffic, we are hopeful the concentration of students, faculty and staff at key VSTC sites will provide enough customers for which a food truck needs to viably operate,” said Alicia Knight, senior associate vice president of operations at George Washington, in a Hatchet interview.
Four different food trucks have each made one-day visits to the VSTC since the program started and remain on campus for a few hours at a time, serving students, faculty and staff from a central location on campus.
George Washington has deployed food trucks at its flagship campus in the heart of Washington D.C. as far back as 2016, and the response has been positive.
Dining variety is at a premium for the satellite GW campus, however, particularly as VSTC does not boast its own campus dining hall. Dining options are often restricted to students leaving campus, which can be time consuming in the middle of the day, or bringing meals from home.
“I think that it helps to offer a variety of things to the staff and faculty of the University,” said one of the food truck operators in a Hatchet interview. “It’s a nice break for me, it’s a short service, and people were very nice there. At least there’s an option there for them now.”
Texas State University is handing the aux cord over to students with a new app that enables them to pick the music playlist at campus dining halls.
Two dining halls on the Texas State campus have introduced Rockbot app, which acts as an interactive jukebox. It allows anyone with the app the ability to queue up a they want to listen to, and have it played over the dining hall sound system.
As reported by The University Star, the initiative is being spearheaded in part by Texas State's food service vendor, Chartwells, who says implementing the app is a response to a number of requests from students to play music in dining halls.
“People have always been requesting it through our guest satisfaction surveys,” said Steven Granados, director of marketing and guest experience at Chartwells, in a University Star interview. “The satisfaction survey gauges things every semester, like what (students) want us to include, how pricing is, etc. One thing that is always in there is music.”
The app was activated at the first dining hall last November followed quickly by a second dining hall in December. The app can be used in any location that recognizes the program – even at a barbershop.
The app works by placing beacons that receive song suggestions from those who have downloaded the Rockbot app. At Texas State, beacons has been placed at dining hall registers.
Chartwells will soon be placing information on each dining hall table with information about the app and how to download it. Diners can also ask student workers about how to interact with Rockbot.
The app can be download from both the Apple Store and Google Play for both Android and Apple phones. Chartwells also has plans to expand the app's availability to include a campus Au Bon Pain and Georges location.
According to the company's website, there is a measure of control over the songs that are queued into the Rockbot playlist. Admins can universally block inappropriate language, ban specific artists and songs, as well as turn off all Rockbot services based at any time.
By Mikhail Ilin, Manager of Campus Card Services, and Adjunct Professor of Business Law and Ethics, Suffolk University
At Suffolk University the Campus Card Services Office serves a community comprised of students, staff and faculty across three schools: College of Arts and Sciences, Sawyer Business School and the Suffolk University Law School. We handle many of the vital aspects of the student experience, including meal plan management; access control; on- and off-campus payments and a discount transit program.
We are a staff of 2.5 full-time employees, and with such vast responsibilities we rely heavily on student employees. Student employees manage the student services center, assist in marketing and technical support areas, as well as staff our student outreach programs. On a semester basis we hire a team of 12-15 student workers.
But why hire so many student workers? In the past, hiring student workers was universally seen as a cost-saving technique, however this view is outdated. The Suffolk card services office hires student workers for reasons that go far beyond saving money.
If your office, like ours, is charged with marketing and student outreach programs, then student workers can be a tremendous resource. Staying current with marketing trends is a daunting task, but students are well equipped to reach their peers.
In the past, hiring student workers was universally seen as a cost-saving technique, but this view is outdated.
I’m reminded of one example when our marketing intern produced and advertisement with purple text. To me it didn’t look quite right, but as she explained, purple was the “in color” for teen and early twenties age groups at the time. A quick Google searched completely backed her claim.
Perhaps the most important reason to hire student workers, though, is to provide them with functional, hands-on experience and résumé building blocks. We are an institution of higher learning and our office is an extension of the institution. Thus, I feel it is my duty to help advance student knowledge.
During our pre-employment interviews, we ask, “what is your major and how may we help you attain your educational and career goals?”
Because card services interfaces with so many areas of student life on campus we are able offer hands-on experience in marketing, information technology, graphic design, communications, global business, management, education, accounting and many more areas. It’s not uncommon for our student employees to branch out and obtain part-time employment with one of our external merchants to further their education toward a specific career goal.
With our office’s wide range of responsibilities we are in need of at least 12 student workers every semester. But where and how do we recruit?
Between work-study job fares, financial aid listings and internal web postings, there’s no shortage of recruitment sources on campus. But the two most effective channels for our card service office have been word-of-mouth and intra-departmental recruitment.
Campus card services at Suffolk works very closely with many other student-facing departments. At times, our flexibility, opportunities and management style might better fit a student worker from another department. In these situations, our campus’ intra-departmental network will help to find a more suitable placement for these students.
Because Suffolk’s Card Services department is able to offer experience in several academic and professional disciplines, we are often the go-to department for student worker transfers. These transfers are always welcome and are made possible by strong bonds that the card services office has formed with other campus departments.
An even more effective channel is word-of-mouth recruitment. Somewhat jokingly we implemented a rule that a graduating student worker needed to find someone to take their place. To our surprise, the rule has taken root and has been successfully followed.
Hofstra University has implemented new access privilege protocols for its resident assistants, revoking previously universal access rights to all campus residence halls.
As reported by The Hofstra Chronicle, the revocation of access privileges marks the end of a pilot program that Hofstra's Office of Residence Life had enacted. That pilot was intended to enable resident assistants to swipe in at any residence hall on campus to attend group training sessions and support fellow RA programming across the various dormitories.
“We found that the swipe access was often being used to enter buildings for purposes other than what was intended when the pilot program began,” said Beth McGuire, senior assistant dean of students and director of Residence Life, in a Hofstra Chronicle interview. “Based on that, and a recommendation from Public Safety, we opted to discontinue the program.”
The university's department of public safety also weighted in on the issue, stating that “universal access to dorm buildings is always risky, always controversial and unnecessary in most cases.” University administrators are confident that the change in policy won't negatively impact resident assistants' ability to successfully carry out their responsibilities.
The decision is seemingly dividing opinion amongst resident assistants, with some arguing that universal access helps to better serve student residents. The policy change, however, is undoubtedly a positive move for safety and security.
“I personally hate the lack of access. It’s annoying because I move around campus so often to the point that it becomes a burden to hand in my ID every time I enter a res hall,” said one Hofstra resident assistant, in a Chronicle interview. “I understand that giving complete access to students is a liability, but there’s a reason we were hired – because the majority of us can handle the responsibility of unrestricted access. It’s a shame that a few RAs had to abuse that privilege.”
Hofstra's Office of Residence Life has reported receiving no formal complaints regarding the new access privilege restrictions.
“It doesn’t really bother me because I didn’t really utilize the access,” commented another Hofstra resident assistant. “If anything, it’s a smart application of security risk and vulnerability management. I’m sure it will cause some inconvenience for some RAs who have to work frequently in different residence halls, but then again, the more you limit privileges like this, the more you reduce the chance of any kind of safety risk.”
Students at UC San Diego will soon be able use their campus cards and TritonCash to pay for the morning-after pill, along with a number of other health-related items, from a campus "Wellness Vending Machine."
As reported by The Triton, UCSD's University Centers Advisory Board (UCAB) has approved the new vending machine for sale of generic Plan B pills via the vending machine. The move makes UC San Diego the third UC campus to sell the morning-after pill via vending machine, following UC Davis last March and UC Santa Barbara in 2015.
The new Wellness Vending Machine will sell a range of other health products including Advil, pregnancy tests and condoms. Students can access the vending machine 24/7 and need to present their student ID card, as the vending machine will only accept TritonCash.
The approval of Plan B as an included vending machine item follows a recently rejected student council proposal to sell the pills in the existing "Essentials Vending Machine" located in the university's Geisel Library. Following rejection by the library director, UCAB along with leaders of the Plan B initiative, campus administrators and Student Wellness department agreed on a second, separate vending machine to be located in UCSD's student union building.
“UCAB felt that many students need Plan B and other wellness products but have a difficult time obtaining them,” said Ashley Awe, Chair of UCAB, in a Triton interview. “By housing this vending machine, UCAB hopes to help bridge this gap for students.”
UCSD's student council is also working with Student Health Services to determine which products are purchased the most and what other items might be needed. Prioritized items for now are condoms, Plan B and pregnancy tests, but suggestions from students for additional items are welcomed.
UCSD is the latest campus to join a seemingly growing trend in selling Plan B pills in campus vending machines. Other instances include Shippensburg University as far back as 2010, UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, Stanford University, Dartmouth College and Pomona College.
“This machine is meant to bridge the gap between what is easily accessible on campus and off,” said Caroline Siegel-Singh, student council senator, in an interview with the Triton. “I really hope that this machine can help make comprehensive reproductive healthcare products accessible to all students who need them as well as promote the idea that academic success is tied to personal wellness."
The Wellness Vending Machine is expected to reach completion of both funding and installation by the spring of 2018.
Trusted identity and secure transaction technology provider, Entrust Datacard, and card system vendor, CBORD, have completed CS Gold integration with TruCredential software. The integration replaces the requirement for IDWorks software, and has been successfully tested at the University of Vermont.
Entrust Daracard's TruCredential is a browser-based identity management software designed to gives universities enhanced card issuance flexibility and can be utilized across the complete Entrust Datacard card printer portfolio.
With the new integration, CBORD customers can easily install and use the new and upgraded TruCredential software. TruCredential also provides migration from IDWorks software and can be used with any existing Entrust Datacard or other branded printers, making the migration simple to integrate into existing campus card issuance systems.
“I’ve been an IDWorks software user for over 20 years and found moving to TruCredential software to be an easy transition," says Mark McKenna, director of the CATcard Service Center at the University of Vermont. "Folks who are familiar with IDWorks software will find the process different but intuitive and straightforward.”
The benefits of TruCredential software include:
By Darren Learmonth, Head of Innovation and Technology Research, HID Global
The way that student ID cards are used on college and university campuses has changed dramatically in recent years, and will continue to evolve in 2018. Campus cards have long enabled users to buy meals, check out library books, open dorm room doors, and more. But crucially, the way campus cards are being issued is evolving, creating a significantly different environment than has existed for the past two decades.
Instead of issuing cards using one or more PC workstations, each connected to a nearby printer, universities will also be making a shift during 2018 to cloud-based solutions that will enable a new, remote card issuance experience. This move will also transform ID card printers into edge devices within the Internet of Trusted Things (IoTT), and redefine the economics of card issuance by ushering in new service-based models.
Issuers will also be accelerating their adoption of mobile IDs, while taking a more integrated approach to access control that significantly improves how campus services are delivered. With all this in mind, here are the top campus trends to watch in 2018:
Increased awareness of the cloud’s ease of deployment, flexibility, connectivity options and productivity benefits will escalate adoption. Access control cloud platforms with APIs and SDKs will fuel new software solutions that expand choices for campus administrators to get the most out of their investments.
Cloud-based card issuance will prove its mettle with campuses for its simplicity, security and cost structure. The cloud-based model improves the user experience by enabling instant issuance at many different locations, rather than requiring a visit to the main card office in order to pick up an ID card.
Moreover, card printers can be installed anywhere, including remote offices and satellite campuses, and cards can be sent to any of these printers. Printers essentially become smart, secure, web-enabled edge devices in the IoTT that can leverage all of the platform’s functionality.
Over the coming year, digital certificates will become a core component for adding trust to applications like cloud-based campus card issuance. The use of digital certificates creates a trusted relationship between the cloud and the issuance console. This also enables students, faculty and staff to confidently interact with cloud-based campus services.
The latest solutions will enable universities to improve both security and privacy protection on the connected campus. As an example, cloud-based issuance solutions securely store encryption keys in tamper-proof hardware, and card data also remains encrypted until it is printed, after which all personally identifiable information (PII) disappears.
Meanwhile, unique firmware ensures the printers cannot be hijacked, but will only work with the cloud-based issuance system software. The issuance console can also be secured with a card reader so that ID print jobs are only released when an authorized card or credential has been physically presented for validation.
Maturation in mobile solutions and integration into other systems -- coupled with mobile’s ability to enhance user convenience, improve operational efficiency and provide higher security -- will drive accelerated growth for mobile access and mainstream campus adoption.
Card emulation on the iPhone, the NFC mode most coveted for mobile access control, remains reserved exclusively for Apple Pay. This leaves Bluetooth as the de-facto communication standard for cross-platform mobile access support. In the meantime, however, campuses will continue to invest in readers and other infrastructure that supports NFC and BLE to prepare for future possibilities.
An increasing focus on the user experience will lead to a new wave of converging physical and data security to a single student credential.
New, converged identity models that use cloud authentication and mobile devices are also emerging, such as the ability to verify a person’s classroom time and attendance, and smart cards that authenticate users to campus networks and other resources.
Devices, access control systems and other solutions connected to the cloud will provide robust data for advanced analytics. Insights from these analytics can be used to optimize campus services and provide more seamless access for students.
Predictive analytics and biometrics will play an increasingly important role in people-centric campus security, as well as address the growing demand for premium and increasingly individualized services.
While the technology used by campus card offices has largely remained static for the past 20 years, the technology available to most other areas of a university’s operations has advanced considerably. It's only natural for the card office to evolve alongside these advancements.
Cloud-based card issuance solutions now have the potential to revolutionize the way that campus card offices operate. Mobile IDs are expected to move towards mainstream adoption. And converged solutions can now deliver new capabilities and the opportunity to use trusted identity analytics to create a more people-centric campus. Universities, and their issuance environments, are poised for big changes in 2018.
A newly proposed bill in the state of California is calling for all campus cards issued to students grades 7 to 12 to have a suicide prevention hotline contact printed on the back.
Senate Bill 972 would require public, charter and private schools issuing student identification cards to have a hotline number printed on the backs of all issued student credentials. The bill also applies to universities and community colleges in the state.
Per the official transcript, Senate Bill 972 would require students grades 7 to 12 that have been issued student ID cards by their school to have printed on the back of the cards the telephone number for a suicide prevention hotline.
The bill would also require public or private institutions of higher education that issue student identification cards to also have printed on the back of all student identification cards, the telephone number for a suicide prevention hotline. Because the bill would impose a new duty on campuses of the California Community Colleges, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state, meaning that statutory provisions will provide procedures for schools to receive a reimbursement for the added cost of the new ID printing measures.
The proposed bill isn't pioneering in its aim, as a number of colleges and universities have been printing contact information for valuable student resources on campus cards for some time. But the addition of these types of resources certainly represents an important service for students of all ages.
Should the bill pass into law, school authorities at both the high school and higher education institutions would be required to begin printing the suicide hotline numbers on the backs student ID cards as early as July 1, 2019.
The trend in college mail services for some time now has been a tremendous influx of packages and a reduction in letter mail. It's largely a reflection of the e-commerce boom and the arrival of more agile delivery services. Colleges across the country have felt this trend directly, and the latest to make refinements to its mailroom services is Boston College, where the volume of packages has inspired the university to transition to a new system to improve productivity for both staff and students.
As reported by student publication, The Heights, Boston College's mailroom has moved from its old mail system, Arrival, to a cloud-based network called SCLogic. With the old system, paper labels were placed on every package that entered the mailroom, and tracking numbers were then scanned from the paper labels. There was a lot of room for human error, and scanning the labels inaccurately often led to confusion among staff and delayed pick ups for students.
A number of campuses have moved into a new era in mail delivery, and under the new system at BC, paper labels are a thing of the past. Mailroom staff can then more efficiently match the package to the student when they are presented with the student’s ID. The system also informs mailroom employees that students have multiple packages ready for pick up by identifying the shelf where a student may have them waiting, without the student having to present more than one email containing pickup notification.
BC mailroom staff estimate that it handles some 20% more packages with each academic year. A significant benefit of the mailroom system overhaul, then, has been that students are picking up packages sooner thanks to better notification features.
“We’ve all been surprised at how much greater the student response has been to the email notifications of the new system,” said Al Travaglini, director of facilities services, in a Heights interview.
The new SCLogic system has certainly helped to refine BC mail services this year, but mailroom staff already looking to the next phase of the overhaul. As seen at other campuses, smart locker systems offer a more efficient way of mail and package delivery.
BC's mailroom is joining that trend and has partnered with Amazon to have the company's locker system installed on the main campus at Kenny Cottle Library. Instead of an Amazon package being delivered to the mailroom to be sorted and then picked up at the mailroom itself, students are given the option of having their package delivered to the Amazon lockers. The lockers have been operational on Newton for three months, with some 200 deliveries being routed there each month.
“It takes those 200 packages out of my waystream, meaning my employees don’t have to handle them, and it gives the recipient of that package greater flexibility in terms of the number of hours they can access the package,” Travaglini said.
The adoption rates and accessibility of the university's Amazon locker deployment has staff exploring the idea of a similar system for BC mailroom operations in the future.
