Almost all of OU’s dorms will switch from key to swipe access by the end of the upcoming summer.
Throughout Fall Semester, roughly 450 lock changes have been made, Joshua Bodnar, Ohio University’s director of Access, Transaction and Video Services, said.
Since 2001, OU has been gradually transitioning to electronic access controls throughout campus to help lower that number.
That is part of a larger program funded by the Department of Housing and Residence Life aiming to change dorms from traditional key locks to a new system that would allow students into a building with just their student IDs, Bodnar said.
The budget for the conversion was originally $2 million to complete 12 buildings, Bodnar said. The money covers projects, including replacing aging doors that will require near-term replacement if they are not converted to electronic access.
The program is set to span the course of three summers, beginning in 2014 and ending in the summer of 2016, he added.
The only dorms being excluded from the three-summer transition will be the 15 dorms in the back of South Green, Executive Director of Residential Housing Pete Trentacoste said.
Bodnar said switching to swipe access cuts down on potential costs that occur when students misplace keys.
“If an ID card is lost, it is simply deactivated and no longer works,” Bodnar said. “If a key is lost, the only way to ensure it can no longer be used is to change the lock and reissue keys to anyone who has access to that door.”
Bodnar also said the university has provided extra security for key usage by providing four separate lock and key sets for each residence hall. Those are rotated on a predetermined interval to reduce the risk of lost keys being used.
Changing dorm access to cards will make OU’s campus a safer place for students to live, as well as eliminate the risks of lost keys and unsecured doors, Bodnar said.
Trentacoste said he has heard nothing but positive feedback from the students who have card access.
“The only concerns I’ve heard are from those students that currently live in buildings that do not have card access,” Trentacoste said. “The question of, ‘Why don’t we have card access?’ has become louder since we’ve increased our aggressiveness in implementation.”
Trentacoste added that Residential Housing would have completed all the buildings in one summer if they could have, but the amount of door and hardware changes was larger than they expected.
Mac Stricklen, assistant director of Residence Life on West Green, is also playing a hand in the change.
“I will echo what Pete said about having only heard positive feedback about the change to cards,” Stricklen said. “I have not heard any complaints personally, nor have the RDs or RAs passed any along to me.”
Currently, all of the students’ individual rooms are still accessible with the traditional keys.
"I probably think it's best because it's one less key to worry about and another less expense you have to pay," Ellie Wagner, an undecided sophomore, said.
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