FORESTVILLE, CONN. - Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies' Schlage Electronic Security today announced that Rock Valley College, a community college located in central Illinois, is using 210 Schlage Computer-Managed (CM) locks to secure its Support Services building, the Student Center and a mass communications lab that is open 24 hours a day. The college has already ordered 200 more CM locks for its Stenstrom Center for Career Education, which is located off the main campus.
Schlage CM standalone locking products provide features found traditionally with online, networked systems. User-friendly software on a laptop or PDA programs the locks, access trim, and offline hard-wired controllers, which manage strikes and magnets. New users, access points and access privileges can be programmed into a CM lock in seconds. Users can select proximity, magnetic stripe, PIN or i-Button credentials individually or in combination. The CM lock also provides an audit trail for download onto a laptop or PDA.
"The ability to use one card for all systems makes my life a lot easier," reports Rick Jenks, Security Network Administrator for the college. "Card access also promotes safety and security on campus. With the electronic CM locks, we can pick and choose access areas and maintain a certain security level. Security is not compromised."
Rock Valley College chose the CM locks and proximity cards because they integrated smoothly with the college's existing Andover hardwired card access system that uses proximity cards. All systems are transparent to the user and one card works an all readers.
"There are major advantages to using the CM locks, particularly because of our many part-time teachers, who may not teach on a regular schedule," Jenks emphasizes. "We used to have to track their keys down because so many people would forget to give them back. Now we can program the locks to simply deny access after a certain date. This functionality saves us a lot of time and money."
Faculty members and staff used to have to carry several keys, and lost keys meant replacing both keys and locks. If a building master key went missing, Jenks would have to rekey the entire building.
"Manual keys are very expensive and time consuming," Jenks notes. "With the CM locks, we only have to remove the card that was lost from the system. This is a great reduction in overall long-term costs."
Jenks and one officer from the campus police department program the CM locks using a PDA and Locklink 7.0 software.
The college has found CM locks an ideal solution in applications where hardwiring is impractical or impossible. The first building to be outfitted with CM locks at the college was the newly constructed Support Services building, which houses maintenance, the campus police department and the financial services office. The second building to be completed was the Student Center, which was undergoing renovation and required upgraded security.
Rock Valley College has already ordered 200 CM locks to secure its new offsite facility, the Stenstrom Center for Career Education. Because that building is at a remote location, campus officials decided it needed the increased security of electronic locks. Older on-campus buildings will also be retrofitted with CM locks as funding becomes available.
"We chose Ingersoll Rand because they are known to produce quality products and they've been around for a long time," Jenks concludes. "We didn't want to invest a substantial amount of the school's money in a company that might not make it in the long run. We also wanted to make sure that the company would stand behind us. Ingersoll Rand is very good with immediate assistance, which helps avoid long-term problems."
Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies are online at www.irsecurityandsafety.com and www.recogsys.com.
