Page 24 - Campus Security & Life Safety, November/December 2021

Getting High Marks
Clemson University conducts full-scale upgrade for access control and video surveillance
Clemson University is a public land-grant higher-education institution in South Carolina, United States. The University is the second largest in the state with a student enrollment of over 24,000. Its main campus spans 1,400 acres in the foot- hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and includes the 17,500- acre Clemson Experimental Forest, used for research, education, and recreation. A cluster of other research facilities and economic devel- opment hubs cover the entire state.
The Trouble with Siloed Access Control Systems
Access control technology has been a security staple at Clemson Uni- versity for over 20 years. In the late 90s, the housing department implemented access control to secure its residence halls. Over time, other academic and administrative departments followed to enhance facility security.
Eventually, the university had four separate access control systems that managed more than 800 doors across 84 buildings. The problem was that each access control system stood alone. During investiga- tions, the public safety team would have to physically meet with the department’s system administrator and ask for the access control records. Determining which system had the information they needed was often the first hurdle, delaying investigations.
Since each department operated in siloes, there was also little visibil- ity on system issues. Some departments pro-actively performed pre- ventative maintenance on a routine schedule, while others responded when problems came up. In those cases, it could take time to get issues resolved which created unnecessary risk for people and buildings.
As more departments came forward expressing interest in access control, TigerOne, the department that oversees physical security and retail systems, knew it was time to rethink their strategy. They dis- cussed options with the Executive Leadership Team, who agreed — Clemson University needed a new access control solution that could scale across all university facilities, both at the main campus and at other sites across the state.
Bringing Departments Together to Find the Right Solution
As a state entity, the university could not just pick any system. Tiger- One assembled a dream team comprising 20+ individuals from vari- ous university departments such as Athletics, Central IT, University Facilities, Public Safety, Research, Procurement, Academics, and put the security project out for public tender. According to Steve Rob- bins, Executive Director of TigerOne at Clemson University, “We wanted a unified enterprise-level access control system that would be scalable, modern, and user-friendly. We envisioned a solution that would give us options for desktop, web, and mobile capabilities as we saw the number of users of the system growing extensively.
“We also needed a solution that could accommodate a high level of automation. We had already developed some web applications, which automatically assigned cardholder rights based on a student’s housing assignment. These automations saved our team tremendous time, so we absolutely required those capabilities in the new solution.”
As the search began, the consideration of video surveillance came up. Over the years, the university had accumulated more than 30 different video systems. While upgrading video systems was not part of the initial plans, the university knew it would be wise to think ahead and choose a solution that could unify video and access control systems.
When all submitted proposals were in, a third of them were for the
By Rick Taylor
GenetecTM Security Center platform. Ensuring due diligence, they met with vendors, weighed options, and consulted referrals. Every mem- ber of the project team rated each solution based on must-have crite- ria. Clemson University chose the Security Center SynergisTM access control solution proposed by integrator, A3 Communications.
“Genetec Security Center met all our requirements. In the end, it was the culmination of everyone’s independent scores on the task force that led us to choose the unified security platform,” Robbins said. The solu- tion also gave us the flexibility to bring access control and video systems under the same platform, as more funds became available over time.”
Achieving Campus-wide Visibility from One Intuitive Platform
Today, Clemson University is using the Security Center platform to manage more than 2,500 doors across more than 120 buildings. While most facilities are located on the main campus, there are sev- eral facilities in adjoining counties and another five sites across the state. The university also migrated more than 700 cameras within the Security Center OmnicastTM video surveillance system. This allows staff from the public safety team, library, data center and others to see all video and door activity within one intuitive security platform.
“Before Security Center, the public safety team didn’t have immedi- ate visibility on what was happening on campus. Today, they can access the security platform to see what is going on and investigate within seconds,” Robbins said. Security operators work from a central control room to monitor events and to keep an eye on the busier areas on cam- pus. If an incident such as a reported theft, they can quickly retrieve access control reports and video evidence without leaving their desks.
Using the Plan Manager Map interface, the public safety team eas- ily navigates the expansive university grounds. If a protest is under- way or a fight breaks out on campus, they can pull up the video to see what is happening, and relay information to responding officers. This ensures they are better prepared for the situation at hand.
“We’re in a much better position for instituting any number of threats level situations as well. Should the need arise; our public safety teams can implement any of seven levels in the platform at the click of a button. For instance, we can go into complete lockdown so that only our first responders would have access into facilities,” Robbins said.
Taking Access Control Automation to the Next Level with Synergis
Clemson University has more than 30,000 active cardholders. This includes all students, staff and affiliates such as contractors, vendors and ministers. To save time and keep campus life moving, assigning access control rights to everyone happens mostly without human intervention. TigerOne took advantage of the security platform’s open architecture to automatically sync data between the Synergis access control system and the university’s enterprise systems—cre- dentials (IDs) human resources, student directory, course registra- tion and housing systems.
Data populated from these systems are stored in a central reposi- tory, known as the Clemson Vault. The Vault collects all information from the various systems, defines individual cardholder attributes, and transfers this data to Security Center. Based on these attributes, the security platform will then automatically assign each cardholder- to-cardholder groups with specific user privileges.
“At the start of the semester, when we have up to 25,000 students enrolled. We don’t have to worry about making sure everyone has access to the right facilities,” Robbins said. “I can’t even imagine how
Access Control
24 campuslifesecurity.com | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021