Campus Access Control Systems

Jon Jones ● Oct 1 ● 10 min read

The challenge of providing a safe and stimulating learning environment for students is one that colleges and universities must address. Taking advanced security measures, like campus access control systems, is essential to accomplishing this now more than ever before. It is necessary to address issues like access control, crowd control, and space utilization in academic buildings, residence halls, and other public areas.

Monarch recognizes that each university has its own set of issues, goals, and limits. After all, each educational facility has a unique design, setting, population, and other site-specific issues that call for varied degrees of flexibility and complexity to meet their particular demands. At Monarch, we will collaborate with you to build, deploy, and maintain an integrated security system for your school by campus access control systems. With our help at Monarch, you’ll be able to concentrate on what really matters: creating a learning environment that encourages the future’s creators, innovators, and leaders to advance.

Campus Security Challenges

As schools, colleges, and universities grapple with today’s challenges, it is important to partner with experienced security professionals who can help assess risks and implement effective solutions. By staying ahead of the curve, schools can keep their students, faculty, and staff safe from harm with advanced campus access control systems. Consider some of the following security challenges on campus:

• Gun Violence: An average of 10 gun homicides occur on college campuses every year. Faculty must consider implementing a campus access control system to reduce the likelihood of gun deaths on campus.
• Theft & Vandalism: According to the National Education Association (NEA), a school is three times more likely to be broken into than a business. Additionally, the NEA estimates that more than $1 billion is lost to vandalism each year in schools.
• Unlawful Intrusions: Ensure safety and security in schools by implementing a security system that includes door controllers and readers to prevent intrusions.
• COVID-19 Safety: With schools returning to in-person operations, faculty should ensure safety through continuous monitoring with surveillance cameras and sensors.
• Physical Altercations: Keep students, faculty, and staff safe from fights with environmental sensors that can detect excessive noise and movement.
• Vapes: Keep students safe from the dangers of nicotine and addiction by implementing security systems with environmental sensors that can detect vaping.

Building a Security System for Schools and Colleges

It is critical to address the most significant issues faced by schools such as unlawful entrance, vandalism, and school shootings while developing a campus access control system. But there should also be security measures in place at schools to guard against common problems like theft and physical altercations. It is also important to guarantee the safety of places like restrooms, storage facilities, and teacher lounges. At Monarch, we’re here to help you build a security system that is the best fit for your educational facility.

Access Control

Campus access control systems are becoming increasingly common as educational facilities rely on it to maintain security with ease. Essentially, access control allows educational facilities to determine who can enter and access certain areas of the school. This is important considering just how many visitors come to schools and colleges (e.g., parents, prospective students, guest speakers).

Additionally, a campus access control system allows faculty to track who is entering and leaving specific areas and when. Access control also keeps unauthorized personnel away. Furthermore, access control enables employees to move around quickly to maximize efficiency with keycards.

There are many ways to control access to a school, college, or university. Monarch can help you determine which approaches you’d like to employ for your campus access control system.

Campus Access Control System: Verkada’s AC41 Door Controller

With Verkada’s AC41 Door Controller, clients may bring plug-and-play ease to managing doors and access throughout their educational facility. In other words, as soon as you install the AC41 Door Controller, it is ready to use within minutes. Our Access Controller can easily integrate with any existing door hardware and readers in your school.

With our Command platform, you can easily manage your doors once they are connected to the network. On the Command platform, you can effortlessly manage building access, scheduling, and users. You also save time adding users on the platform since employees are seamlessly configured, onboarded, and offboarded. This is because of the integration with active directory platforms.

Additionally, you can easily connect your Access Controller with your cameras using Verkada Command to provide real-time video analytics on access-related events. Thus, you are able to not only view what is happening at your business’ points of entry, but also take proactive action for any significant occurrences. The door controller, then, is an essential for campus access control systems.

Campus Access Control System: Verkada’s AD32 Door Reader

The AD32 Door Reader is yet another device that allows you to control access to your educational facility’s entry points. This door reader supports low and high frequency card formats as well as mobile devices that have the Verkada Pass app. Furthermore, the AD32 Door Reader comes in two different options: the Mullion Mount Plate and the Single Gang Mount Plate. Both options allow for customized installs.

The Single Gang Mount Plate is a common card reader format that can replace existing reader mounts or be used on traditional installations. The thinner Mullion form factor has a sleek design and can be used in smaller spaces such as door frames.

Access Control Key Features

With Verkada devices, security on campus is made easy! Consider the following key features of Verkada’s access control:

• Seamless Video Integration and Analytics
• Infinite Scalability
• Cloud-Based Software and Management
• Integrate the Access Controller with Any Existing Cards and Readers
• 10-year Warranty on Hardware
• Verkada’s Pass App: Touchless Access Capability with Bluetooth

The Uses of Campus Access Control Systems

As an administrator at your school or college, you can feel secure knowing students and staff are safe with Verkada’s campus Access Control system. Consider the following benefits of implementing access control at your school:

Insight on Building Access Activity

• Our campus access control system handles visitor credentials and ensures that visitors like parents and prospective students only have access to specific areas.
• Access control allows faculty to control who can enter and access certain areas of the campus.
• Faculty can track who is entering and leaving specific areas and when.

Intrusion Detection

• Campus safety door locks deter potential crime by allowing only those with authorized credentials to unlock the door, especially at night and on weekends when the school is closed.
• Access control is also crucial for identifying intrusions when they do happen. You can filter for door events like tailgating, holding the door open, forcing the door open, and people of interest.

Asset Protection

• Schools can prevent students and visitors from entering restricted areas that have valuable assets by installing door lock systems that require authorized credentials.
• Safeguard library, gym, and science and computer lab equipment with controlled access school door locks. Only authorized students or faculty will be able to gain entry into these areas by using access controlled school door locks. Prevent vandalism and theft with this measure.

Verkada’s Door Controller Follows Regulations

You can rest assured that Verkada’s campus access control systems can be used with ease. Verkada meet the following guidelines for door locks in schools:

1. without opening the door to set the lock, a teacher should be able to control the classroom door lock from the inside;
2. emergency responders must be able to enter a classroom or office without having to obtain a credential for the school door lock systems
3. the school door locks should be easy to use and accessible to everyone, including students with disabilities;
4. door locks must adhere to all building and fire codes in order to comply with school safety regulations.

Verkada’s Access Control devices meet the above requirements while still providing a safe, secure environment for students, staff, and faculty.

Managing Access Credentials

So, how does Verkada’s access control work? You can manage access control on the Verkada Command platform which is where you can access and monitor all of your devices. There are many different features that you may use to secure access control across your school.

First, you can specify the user groups or access levels of your school on Verkada Command. Then, you can design badge templates for each user group or access level. Next, you can print the badges and issue credentials either in bulk or individually. Finally, you can maintain your school’s users and permissions up to date in real time.

What else can be done on Verkada Command to manage your business’ access control? Consider the following features:

• Synchronize Profiles: Synchronize users from SSO systems such as Okta and Azure Active Directory, and natively capture access levels and groups.
• Provisioning with a Single Click: With a single click, employees can be issued bluetooth credentials or a physical ID card.
• Log of Badge Events: On Verkada Command, access a log of badge events to ensure that only authorized individuals have access to secure areas.
• Secure De-provisioning: Instantly and automatically deprovision users from all systems and access points.
• Unlock Doors from Anywhere, Anytime: Users can remotely unlock authorized doors using either the Verkada Pass and Command Mobile apps
• One-Tap Instant Lockdown: Create custom Lockdown scenarios that can be activated with a single tap to immediately secure buildings in the event of an emergency.

How Verkada Works for Colleges and Universities

At Monarch, we recognize the importance of collaborating with educators, government officials, and law enforcement to provide a secure learning environment for youth. We’ve worked with small, local public schools to large universities, providing us with an understanding of the variety of school-specific needs.

The Roles of IT

With centralized physical management, IT teams can readily and remotely access any information needed if they have the authorization.

The Roles of Faculty

School faculty can also remotely monitor the facility because of centralized device management. Essentially, to monitor the school, one only needs to go onto one platform and all the information is there. This allows the faculty to quickly find, share, and even save footage for any investigations thereby saving the district from costs that could disrupt annual budgets. Lastly, one can protect student privacy with a feature that automatically blurs faces.

The Roles of Security

Lastly, those in security roles can reduce emergency response time through proactive monitoring. One also receives realtime updates for unusual behavior, especially after school hours. Finally, to keep students safe from any unwanted intruder, one can easily activate instant lockdown from any device.

All in all, a Verkada campus access control system offered by Monarch guarantees safety and security for everyone involved in protecting students and faculty.