Bryn Mawr began in 1885 as a female undergraduate liberal arts institution, and has grown to become one of the most prestigious in the country. Some 95 percent of students live on campus in 11 halls and houses and other associated housing. The college chose to install an electronic access control system. Before 2004, most access was by use of brass keys.
Key distribution to all students included a front-door key for the student’s dorm and her own bedroom door key. If a student lost her keys, her bedroom was re-cored for a new key, but she was simply given another copy of the same front door key.
As a result, front door keys proliferated. Although there had never been a real problem, no one knew when an errant dorm key might fall into malicious hands. Parents and students expected a better system than that, and the college wanted to be on the leading edge, setting a good impression as well as controlling who enters buildings.
In 2000, a committee comprised of 12 Bryn Mawr staff members and students was appointed to investigate a new system with access control as one aspect for the college. Committee members were selected from the various services and departments most interested in a card system: dining services, administrative services, public safety, facilities services, IT and libraries. At that time, each of the three libraries had its own independent access control requiring a separate access card.
The committee was divided into groups investigating different areas: access control, administrative services/dining, cash operations, libraries and IT. The assistant director of facilities chaired the access control group.
Bryn Mawr initiated the system to answer existing needs for visual identification in the three libraries, three dining areas, gym and computer centers and for general IDs. The card was in use, but there was no associated access control.
Part of the committee’s job was to evaluate various access control systems and decide how and where the technology would be applied. There was general agreement that the library side, the administrative side and access control should all be built into a single, complete system.