I continue the saga (begun here and continued here) of the replacement of mechanical locks on classroom buildings at Grinnell with electronic ones.
We experienced a very short power outage early one Sunday morning during fall break. I came in to restart the workstations in MathLAN, most of which do not reboot automatically when power is restored, and to check the system for damage. The doors to the Science Building were locked, but the electronic locks were on and worked correctly -- I was able to get in by waving my Pioneer One-Card at the lock. When I went over to Carnegie Hall to reboot the three MathLAN workstations in that building, the card let me in there, too. I sighed with relief, expecting that I would be able to bring this story to a neat end.
Late in the afternoon of Wednesday, November 15, those of us who have offices in the Science Building were advised that some of the people who are doing construction work on an extension to the building had accidentally cut through seven electrical conduits, forcing power to be shut down for several hours while repairs were made. Since the ventilation systems would be affected by the shutdown, threatening the safety of anyone inside, the Office of Campus Safety and Security evacuated the building and locked the entrances.
When I came in the next morning, the LED display on the electronic lock at the southeast entrance to the Science Building was red, indicating that the doors were locked. I got out my card and waved it at the lock. The display flickered yellow for a moment and then went back to red. I checked the door. It wasn't locked. I checked the other doors to the Science Building. The displays on their electronic locks were green.
I entered and called the Office of Campus Safety and Security. They explained that the power had been out the previous evening. I assured them that the power was back up now (it had, in fact, never actually gone down in our wing of the building, except to the electronic door locks), and that the lock, through receiving power, was not responding to the cards. They suggested that I contact the Assistant Director of Facilities Management for an explanation. I explained that at this point there was nothing wrong with the power supply, and that, while I understood that the power had been down, what I wanted was an explanation of why the lock wasn't responding to my access card now that the power was back up.
The functionary who answered the telephone put me on hold three times while she conferred with others in the office. She finally said that the Director of Security was willing to discuss the matter with me and that she would connect me. She connected me to his voice mail. I hung up and called again. The officer who answered the phone this time told me that I would have to speak with the Assistant Director of Facilities Management.
The Assistant Director of Facilities Management was, understandably, very busy that day, dealing with more serious consequences of the construction accident. Even so, he returned my call at the end of the day, patiently reviewing the circumstances that led to the power failure, explaining how his team had gone about restoring power to the electronic locks and what they had done overnight to ensure, as much as possible, that classes, research, and normal office routine could continue in the morning. As I expected, however, he wasn't able to explain why the lock wasn't responding to my access card now that the power was back up.
When I left for the day, at 5:45 p.m., the lock was still displaying red and still not responding to my access card only with a flash of yellow.
The next day (today, November 17), I arrived at the southeast entry to the Science Building at 7:30 a.m. and found both doors locked. The display on the electronic lock was still red, and waving my access card at it caused it to flash yellow and then go red again. The doors remained locked. I checked the other doors to the Science Building; they were unlocked, and their locks' displays were green.
I entered and called the Office of Campus Safety and Security. The officer who answered said that I would have to speak with the Assistant Director of Facilities Management. I declined to pester him again, but my colleague Henry Walker, who came in a few minutes later, persisted a little longer. By that time, Facilities Management had identified a hardware problem. A controller that transmits signals from the card sensor to the hardware that actually unlocks the doors had failed. The Assistant Director of Facilities Management said that a replacement will be installed today.
The Office of Campus Safety and Security told Henry that they could not send anyone around to unlock the doors without the permission of the Assistant Director of Facilities Management. The Assistant Director of Facilities Management was astonished to hear this, since of course he's not usually responsible for controlling access to campus buildings. Fortunately, he was willing to grant that permission.
I draw several conclusions from this latest series of events:
Althought I was hoping to wrap up this series of reports with a happy ending in Episode 3, it was not to be. The saga continues.
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created November 17, 2006
last revised November 17, 2006