Public Safety to Throw the Switch on New Access System in January

Author: Caroline Stauffer

The new enhanced access system will bring with it a period of adjustment for Middlebury College. Due to the implementation of the system, students may have to carry around, for a short time period, another card in addition to their MiddCard, according to Assistant Treasurer Tom Corbin.
Beginning this Winter Term, students will receive a new card that will let them into residence halls during locked hours. Eventually, this card will replace the current MiddCard.
"The goal is to get both the access system and the MiddCard system in at the same time," said Corbin. "But it is possible for a period of time that students may have two cards."
The College is still searching for a business to provide the services necessary for a one-card system.
During the last week of Winter Term, the Department of Public Safety will lock residence halls for periods of three hours and remain present to answer questions and assist students with entry. This will serve as the trial period for the new systems designed to help students acclamate themselves to the changes.
The program will be fully operational at the start of spring term, when doors will be locked from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. on weeknights. During the weekend the College is considering leaving the doors unlocked for one hour longer.
The access cards will contain information read by proximity readers located on a plate by the entrances doors to every residence halls. The readers have the appearance of little black boxes about the size of a fire alarm, according to Corbin. To open a door, the card must be within one foot of the reader.
"According to the manufacturer, it should be a very easy system to use," said Wayne Darling, museum and community center manager. The system will be installed in all major residence halls, Voter Hall and the dark room in Forest Hall.
Doors will also be equipped with a small alarm that will activate when a door is held open for more than 45 seconds to prevent the doors from being propped open. Corbin assures that these alarms are "not as obnoxious as a fire alarm."
Primary entrances will feature call boxes to facilitate entry to dorms. Visitors, delivery personnel and locked-out students will be able to call someone to assist them. These call boxes will double as emergency phones, resulting in an increase of 30 phones on campus.
The movement for enhanced security in the dorms began last year after an assault on a student in Hadley Hall. This incident revealed that "we might not be as safe in Vermont as we had assumed," according to Darling.
The ensuing problem of safety left students at odds with the College. The College attempted to lock residence halls at night for the first time, which provoked strong student opposition. Student representatives said that the dormitory "lock down" was an overreaction and a restrictive solution.
To solve the problem, the Community Council issued a campus safety report on April 3, 2002, recommending the implementation of an enhanced access system.
The process of selecting a proposal took the entire month of August. ColRam, the selected company, is currently on campus installing the system. "Installation is progressing on schedule," said Darling.
Although the new card system will allow students to enter residence halls, keys will still be necessary for individual room entry.
Several students recently expressed concern about Public Safety's ability to track individuals through the new enhanced access system. According to Corbin, tracking is not a possibility and would be of no advantage to the department. He also pointed out that several students could enter a building each time someone uses a card to open the door, so there would be no way to track completely.
The only possible time the school would review which cards unlocked which doors would be in the case of a major felony, and the ability to review the records would have to be approved by a staff member at the provost level. A record of which cards have unlocked which doors will be kept for 60 days. If a serious crime such as a sexual assault were to occur, with the approval of the co-chairs of the Community Council and a provost, Public Safety would be able to review the information.