Project Profiles: Educational Facilities

Northeastern University, Boston

Retrofit Team

SECURITY INSTALLER: Northeastern University facility staff, Boston

Materials

Security and convenience drove the transition away from offline residence-hall room locks, which required frequent card re-encoding to make changes. Northeastern switched to CBORD’s CS Access for online control, which is fully integrated with the CS Gold campus card system already used on campus. Together with Allegion’s Schlage AD-400 wireless locks and aptiQ smart cards, the integrated, online solution controls and updates locks remotely; opens doors with a card, app or text message (“Open My Door”); eliminates metal master keys by temporarily elevating card privileges with a text message (with prior approval); enacts emergency lockdowns on one or thousands of doors; and audits door histories and alarm states.

If Northeastern moves to a different card format in the future, the lock’s reader can be easily replaced without removing the rest of the lock from the door. This modular design gives Northeastern confidence that it will not need to reinstall the locks as technology evolves.

SECURITY PROVIDERS: CBORD and Allegion PLC

The Retrofit

Northeastern has improved student safety by rolling out online door access control on 8,000 doors in its 36 residence halls and other facilities. The online security system replaces labor-intensive offline and key-based locks, better protecting students and improving efficiency.

In a recent Northeastern student survey with more than 1,100 respondents, 79 percent reported being satisfied or very satisfied with the new online locks, and 82 percent were satisfied or very satisfied with the many options to open their doors (card, app, text).

When responding to lockouts, Northeastern wanted to keep its Resident Assistants from walking outside between buildings at night to retrieve master keys. RAs and other staff members can now use CBORD’s “MasterKey” feature to temporarily elevate their card privileges via text message and open residents’ doors using their own cards. This feature, which requires preapproval, has proven to be an important safety benefit.

PHOTO: CBORD