Electronic or keyless access to student housing delivers a host of benefits, including increased security, enhanced student experience, and elimination of costs associated with re-keying and key handling. As more and more small and mid-sized institutions make the leap to electronic access, it has become clear that these benefits aren’t exclusively available to large institutions.

On Wednesday, September 21, 2022, leaders from Swarthmore College and Denison University will present their experiences in a free webinar hosted by CBORD and featuring access control solutions provider, Allegion. The free event will explore how to implement keyless access in campus residence halls with topics including selling the business justification, obtaining funds, and post-deployment results.

Panelists:

• Anthony Condo, Director of Campus Services, Swarthmore College
• Steven Simpson, Electronic Access Control System Technician, Denison University
• Bernie Alm, Integrated Security Account Manager, CBORD

Panel Moderator:

• Jeff Koziol, Business Development Manager for Campus Software Partners, Allegion

“Electronic access is for all institutions, but we wanted to provide a forum focused on small to medium sized campuses,” says Jeff Koziol, Business Development Manager for Campus Software Partners, Allegion. “Often the industry focuses on the Power 5 Football Conference campuses, but schools of all sizes benefit from going keyless in residence halls.”

Panelist Anthony Condo, Director of Campus Services, Swarthmore College, says that from the inception of their OneCard program in 2016, their roadmap included the addition of card readers to student rooms. “Our campus partners and institutional leadership saw the many benefits of making this change, including a reduction in keys being issued, a more secure campus, and an enhanced student experience," he says.

Condo – along with fellow panelist Steven Simpson, Electronic Access Control System Technician, Denison University – will explore successes and challenges from their campus implementations.

When asked about the decision of going keyless or sticking with the old keys, Allegion’s Koziol is clear. “Best practice is to move these openings to electronically controlled card access or mobile access,” he says.

“When is the last time you checked into a hotel or a VRBO and were given a brass key?” Koziol asks. “In the modern world, you’re given a card at the hotel’s front desk or a pin code to get into your vacation rental. Still, we think it’s fine to hand out brass keys to students to get into their rooms.”

“Over the last few years, our industry has focused on developing technologies that take away the dependence on the ID card,” says Koziol. “I think we have almost forgotten about the fact that while a lot of our campuses are moving to mobile credentials, a lot of the students and faculty members on these campuses are still holding onto a brass key.”

When it comes to cost, the operational cost savings create a solid ROI for keyless access.

“When you lose a campus master or submaster to a building, really good practice is to go out and make sure you rekey all those openings and put in new cylinders,” says Koziol. “A couple of lost master keys could justify the cost of putting electronics on all those doors.”

The webinar will take place on Wednesday, September 21, 2022 at 2:00 PM EDT.
REGISTER NOW.

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