Electronic locks: first test

This fall, Grinnell College is replacing the conventional locks on classroom buildings with electronic locks, designed to be opened by proximity cards. Students have been using this system to get access to their dorms for two years or so now.

My only previous experience with electronic locks, at Rice University during by 1999 sabbatical, left me with a very unfavorable view of the technology. At Rice, the purpose of the locks was to display the power and independence of the Office of Security, to prove that they could force other people to bend to their will, without themselves having to bend to anyone else's will. The particular consequence of this posturing in my case was that I could not enter the building containing my office, nor could I use the computer labs in other buildings, on weekends or in the evening. I enlisted the help of the department chair and his staff, and paid several visits in person to the Office of Security, and though they agreed in principle that I should be given access, my card never actually opened any doors.

My guess is that the system here won't work any better. The process of getting access to a building has four steps. First, most faculty members must get new identification cards. Second, each faculty member must ask the “building supervisor” to submit an access request, on his behalf, to the relevant executive administrator (in my case, the Dean of the College). Third, the Dean either grants or denies this request. Fourth, if he grants it, he sends a message to the Office of Campus Safety and Security, where a functionary adds the faculty member's name to the access-control list for the building.

I obtained my new identification card on Monday, the first day on which they were issued, and on Monday afternoon I presented it to the building supervisor for the Science Building and the building supervisor for Carnegie Hall, asking them to put in access requests for me. (The Science Building is where my office and the classrooms that I'll be using this semester are; I also need access to Carnegie Hall in order to work on the computers of three senior members of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics who are housed there.) So far, I haven't received any reply to the requests, but I don't really expect any; neither the building supervisor, nor the Dean, or anyone in the Office of Security would think it necessary to respond to such a request by e-mail, regardless of whether that request is granted or denied.

Today I went to the Science Building to change a backup tape. As on most summer Saturdays, it was locked up. The door through which I wanted to enter has an electronic lock on it, so I got out my identification card and waved it at the reader, which chirped briefly but didn't unlock the door.

Fortunately, Facilities Maintenance has not yet removed the conventional locks, so I was able to unlock the door with my key and enter the building. On the other hand, I found it unpleasant that I couldn't open the electronic lock. I can think of three possible explanations:

1. My request for access to the Science Building was denied.
2. It takes more than four business days for a request for access to be processed.
3. The electronic lock doesn't work as it should.

I'll be curious to see which of these is correct and how long it takes to solve the problem.

Update: I had occasion to return to the Science Building this evening. One of my colleagues happened to be passing by at the same time, and I mentioned to her that my card didn't unlock the door. She also has a freshly issued card that she had not yet tried. However, she had not asked our building supervisor to put in an access request for her and was surprised to learn that this was a condition of access. She pulled out her wallet and waved it at the reader, which promptly unlocked the door. I closed it again and got out my card. It still didn't work.

I strolled over to the Office of Campus Safety and Security and told the guard that my card wouldn't unlock the door to the Science Building. He took my card, looked it over, and went over to a computer and tapped keys for a while. He asked which buildings the card was supposed to unlock, and I told him that I had requested access to the Science Building and Carnegie Hall. After some more keystrokes, he said that there didn't seem to be an appropriate code for that particular access combination, and that he would leave a note reporting the problem for the functionary to consider when she returns on Monday. In the meantime, he had arranged for my card to open the door to the Science Building.

I walked back over to the Science Building, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the electronic lock on the Science Building does indeed now respond to my card. And, for the time being, the conventional key also still works.

Second update: On Monday (August 14), I returned to the Office of Campus Safety and Security. The functionary who manages the access-control list was not in, and will not be in until Thursday. However, I was able to speak with the College's Director of Security, who looked at the database and found that I was not listed as having access either to the Science Building or to Carnegie Hall. He again arranged for my card to open the door of the Science Building.

I checked with my building supervisor, who reports that the Dean has not yet approved any requests for faculty access from any of the building coordinators. It has been almost eight days, six business days, since the request went in.

The building supervisor did have some good news for us, though. Not that the cards would start working any time soon -- not even that the requests would be approved any time soon -- but rather that

Another memo (I think an all-faculty email) regarding this process should be coming soon from [the Dean's] office.

Oh, goody. I love memos.