By the fall of 2003, students living in Smith, Carolina, Virginia, West, Sloan, Moffitt and Staley residence halls will not need to remember a code for the punch-button access system on their doors. All a student will need is a Phoenix card.

Over the summer, these residence halls and several academic buildings will be outfitted with new card-swipe access systems, courtesy of the Residence Hall Improvement Fund. Money in this fund is also being used to air-condition residence halls. The fund was established with money from students’ room and board fees.

With the new system, which is backed up with battery power in case of a power outage, students, faculty and staff will be required to slide their Phoenix card through a system at the door to enter a residence hall or academic building at night. For those with approved access, the doors will immediately unlock.

During the day, the outside doors to buildings will remain unlocked, as they are with the current system. At night, only students who live in the residence halls or staff who have a reason to be in the buildings at night will be allowed in through the card-swipe system.

"There are several reasons to switch to a card-access system," said Doug Searcy, director of Residence Life. "One, it provides a high quality of service to students, whereas the current code system is less reliable and can be more readily accessed by individuals who do not live in the community. Second, there is a higher level of residential accountability. If problems occur in a given residence hall, we can review data to determine who has gained access to the facility during a given period of time."

Searcy said the new card system will also allow Campus Security to better monitor the status of residence halls and academic buildings. The new system will detect doors that have been propped open, alerting security guards to possible threats to students’ safety. The current system is unable to detect open doors, allowing people who are not members of the Elon community to enter dorms and have access to students and their personal living space.

"With the code or punch system, it can be easier for people to gain access to a residence hall who should not be present," Searcy said. "The new technology of card access provides a better way to meet students’ needs and maintain safety."

He mentioned that there have been problems in the past with students sharing the codes for the residence halls, giving eavesdroppers access to buildings where they do not belong.

Also, under the punch code system, students who switch to a room in a different residence hall can still gain access to their old residence hall if they remember the code. With the new system, Campus Security can immediately electronically restrict the student’s access to his or her new building.

Several academic buildings will also be receiving swipe card access systems on one or more doors. Belk Library, McEwen communications building, Moseley Center and the McMichael Science Center will all have at least one door outfitted with the new system, said Ed Eng, director of the Physical Plant.

Eng said the new system will allow after-hours access students, faculty and staff members who have classes or offices in these buildings. Instead of leaving the buildings unlocked or locking students out who might need to get to class, the rosters of late-night classes, faculty and staff with offices in these buildings will be entered into the electronic access list that governs the entire swipe card system.

Students who lose their cards will be issued pass cards to their residence halls until their Phoenix cards are replaced, and those who loan their cards to other students will face punishment.

It has yet to be decided whether loaning a card to another person so that person can gain access to a building would be an honor code violation, since the current system has no punishment guidelines in place for those who give out the codes to their residence halls.

Searcy said he believes it is an issue that must be dealt with.