The changes are being made to enhance security and provide more accurate building occupancy information.
You may have recently noticed a pedestal with red and green lights in the lobbies of some University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) buildings. These pedestals are One Card readers, and employees and students soon will need to swipe their One Cards at them when they enter UMB buildings.
Now UMB building doors are locked, and students and employees must swipe their One Card at the external card reader to enter and show their badge to the security officer. Once the pedestals are operational, which the University hopes is by the end of 2021, main building doors will be unlocked.
Security officers will ensure that employees and students are swiping their One Cards at the pedestals and that visitors register with the Visitor Management System, known as LobbyGuard. If you forget your One Card, you’ll need to register with the LobbyGuard kiosk and check in with the officer as other non-One Card holders would have to do when entering a building.
The changes are being made to enhance security and provide more accurate building occupancy information, according to Tom Hockensmith, director, Center for Information Technology Services (CITS). CITS has been coordinating with the University of Maryland, Baltimore Police Department (UMBPD) to implement the pedestals.
“The benefits to the average One Card holder are increased campus safety and security,” Hockensmith said. “These new processes will help UMBPD more accurately know who is in a building and more importantly that the person should be allowed to enter the building.”
UMBPD Chief Thomas Leone, MSL, agreed.
“This is the culmination of months of collaboration between CITS and the UMBPD. I’m proud of the result. It’s one more way that we’re ensuring the safety of our UMB community,” he said.
Employees and students will need to swipe their One Cards at the kiosks every time they enter a building, even if it is the same building multiple times a day. You do not need to swipe if you leave.
The exception is if you enter through a door that is not a main entrance, such as the back entrance of the Lexington Building. You will not need to swipe at the pedestal but will instead continue to swipe your One Card at the external reader to enter. Those entrances will remain locked since they are not near a security officer station.
This system will work in conjunction with LobbyGuard, allowing UMBPD to get a report of One Card holders who swiped into a building and non-One Card holders who registered with a LobbyGuard kiosk. If there is an emergency, UMBPD can run those reports and use time stamps to see who should be in the building, Hockensmith said.