Increased Security for Campus Apartment Entry

On Campus apartment such as Heaney Hall and others got new UCard scanners to unlock the building. Photo Credit: University of Minnesota Duluth.

All on-campus apartments recently upgraded to UCard access for exterior doors, switching from the older-school keyed entry system. “It’s always been in the plan,” said Ben Thompson, Associate Director for Housing Maintenance and Custodial Operations at UMD. The move follows the same process that happened to the residence halls three or four years ago. “The goal was to have it done before the academic year started, but [we] ran into a few snags,” said Thompson. 

A few factors went into the decision, including the amount of keys that are lost and the public safety office down in the cities pushing for card access on all doors. If someone loses their card, it would be automatically deactivated, securing the building against someone finding and using it to gain entry. Students who do lose their cards will have to contact the housing information desk to get a temporary card while they wait for a new UCard. In the case of a power outage, each control panel has battery backup, which at the current capacity would last over five hours, approximately. Thompson requested an increase in capacity, saying “I’m hoping to hit twelve to fourteen hours.” Power outages are usually short, but housing has plans in place in the event of a longer outage. Specifically, Residential Advisors or other humans would start staffing doors to let students in and out in the event that card access is lost completely. 

In the future, Thompson cited the long-term goal of moving completely away from keys and putting electronic access on all doors. That goal, however, is expensive and labour-intensive, so no timeline has been set.