Digital lock system moves ahead, amid backlash

The process of installing a digital lock system across Penn’s campus has just hit its halfway point, overcoming some backlash from students along the way.

Residential Services has been gradually installing new digital security systems since the summer of 2016, after completing a pilot project in Gregory College House in 2015. But when the installations at the gates outside the Quadrangle started around November, the long lines caused students to complain that the new system was inefficient and difficult to use.

The opposition first came toward the end of fall semester. Students posted several petitions protesting the new system at the entrances of buildings, at Wawa and on social media. But John Eckman, director of Residential Services, said administrators did not receive a petition in any formal capacity.

Eckman said he saw the petitions posted on campus, which prompted him to reach out to the information desk workers at college houses, the Residential Advisory Board and residential advisors to ask them what they had heard from students.

“If people were upset, we wanted to get right on it and figure out how to fix it,” Eckman said. “So that’s when we did the YouTube video. We were like, ‘Okay, people are getting frustrated with how to get in the gate, so let’s do this, let’s get guards, let’s help people figure out how to use it.’”

Director of Communications and External Relations Barbara Lea-Kruger did not name the specific cost of hiring the extra staff, but she said Business Services did not exceed their original budget of $7.85 million.

While the explanatory YouTube video and added security staff did help shorten the long lines, some students said even toward the end of last semester that they still noticed issues. College freshman Caroline Terens, who lives in the Quad, said she noticed a difference after staff members were placed at the entrances. But after her lecture of primarily freshmen ended, she said there would still always be a long line outside of the Quad that didn’t exist before the installment.

Terens said she also felt frustrated that students were not informed of why the system was changed.

“There was really no explanation for the system change and it’s less productive than the old system,” Terens said. “It doesn’t really make sense why they would change it and why it would be causing so many problems.”

Even among workers at the information center at the front of the Quad, few knew the exact reason for this change.

“I heard some people who work here complain about it, saying that the touching pad doesn’t really work, and some people like it because it looks new, like it looks advanced,” College senior Jamie Han said, who is a student worker in the information center. “But I felt that, if the school is updating it and continuing to update it in more and more places, there must be a reason behind it. Maybe it’s more cost-efficient.”

The new swipe-in system is just one element in a larger project that extends across campus and ultimately aims to replace all manual locks with digital card systems. Officially starting with New College House at the start of the year, all on-campus residential houses now have digital systems installed on the outside of student suites. Student rooms in the Quad are the last to undergo the transition to the digital system. This process began during winter break and is likely to extend through the end of the spring semester because half of all manual locks in need of replacement exist in the Quad, Eckman said.

He added that the new swipe-in system at the gate is necessary because the old system would not work in conjunction with the new Salto technology, which provides the digital locks on student doors and on buildings around campus.

Another major element of this process is the installation of digital locks on individual rooms within suites. This will include the majority of student housing outside of the Quad, which only has a handful of suites. Currently, there are no locks within the suites on individual bedrooms, and students within the suite can decide among themselves who gets which room. Next year, students will have to pre-select their bedrooms within the suite and their personal PennCard will grant them access to that room.

Eckman said the new digital system would avoid any risk of security breaches that resulted from students losing keys in the past.

“There’s always a call for more privacy for people,” Eckman said. “You know, ‘Okay, when I go away for Thanksgiving, I don’t know who my roommate is going to have visiting, it would be nice to be able to lock my bedroom door.’ That’s not something people can do right now.”

This aspect of the project will take place over the summer, to avoid disturbing current suite residents. Houses transitioning to a digital system will be operating on an “opt-in” system. Throughout this semester, students will return their manual keys when they see fit, and by the next fall semester the entire project is expected to be completed.