By Neftali Acosta
The Scene staff
Forest Park has hundreds of faculty and staff members and all of them need keycards to get into classrooms and offices.
Managing the system isn’t an easy job. Each group of employees has a different requirement on how often keycards have to be reactivated.
“Student workers get six months,” said Tim Cary, the person in charge of issuing, reactivating and distributing keycards. “… Adjuncts (part-time instructors) get a year, and full time get two.”
Cary got the job of “key master” in the facilities department last semester. Before that, he worked part time in the Forest Park mailroom then full time at the information desk in the Student Center lobby.
The college created his new position as part of a revamped keycard system. In the past, it was the responsibility of campus police and later campus police and facilities.
Many people found fault with both systems, which took police away from their primary responsibility of law enforcement. Employees also complained that they didn’t get keycards reactivated in a timely manner.
Today, everyone seems happier with the new system because it’s simpler logistically. It also allows full-time employees to go two years instead of one before having to reactivate keycards, and adjuncts to go one year instead of having to reactivate at the beginning of each semester.
“We try to make everything pretty easy,” Cary said. “My whole goal is, once I give you the key, I won’t see you for a year as far as the keys go.”
Campus police also like the new keycard system.
“With facilities now handling that responsibility, it gives us more time to provide a safer and secure environment for the campus and take care of our other responsibilities,” said Lt. David A. Berryman.
Police are still involved in the system in two ways: They will let employees into their classrooms or offices if they forget their keycards, and they will investigate if keycards are lost or stolen.
“(The employees) would have to make a police report and then have a replacement key made,” Berryman said.
Most employees need cards
Keycards are given to all Forest Park employees who need access to classrooms or offices. Those that go into electronic door locks are considered more secure than metal keys that go into mechanized door locks because the electronic locks can’t be picked.
Electronic door locks serve another purpose: They keep track of which employees enter which rooms.
“It’s a safe-lock system,” Berryman said. “It allows us to record every time a door is opened with that key, so that’s something you can’t do with a metal key.”
Keycards are activated to only open doors to classrooms or offices that a particular employee needs to access. They can be activated to open doors to just one room or multiple rooms, depending on what’s approved by department chairs.
Keycards that open multiple rooms have chips, while those that open one room only have magnetic strips.
The original keycard system required campus police to issue, reactivate and distribute keycards. With the second system, the facilities department issued and reactivated keycards, but employees still had to pick them up from campus police.
Both the second system and the current system have worked well, according to Linda Ross, an adjunct professor who teaches Oral Communication 101.
“Both have been very timely with issuing (keycards),” she said. “It’s no problem at all.”
Sandra Arumugam-Osburn, chair of the communications department, didn’t see that much of a problem with any of the systems. Even the original system required employees to wait only three days or a week at the most, she said.
But Arumugam-Osburn understands that the new keycard system is better because it cuts out campus police as a middleman and lets officers focus on law enforcement.
“The college did a fantastic job by assigning one person to oversee all of that,” she said, adding that Cary is “a great person, too. I think the college made a good decision hiring him.”
Cary hand-delivers keycards
Cary enjoys the new position because he likes dealing with people on campus. But he wants to make sure everyone knows that he doesn’t think campus police did a bad job of issuing, reactivating and distributing keycards.
“They did a good job,” he said. “It’s just that they had limited time to do it. They’re police officers, and they have security duties to perform.”
Under the new system, Forest Park employees go to Warehouse Receiving in D-10 and fill out forms to get keycards issued or reactivated.
“Sometimes, depending upon when you visit them, you can just sit in the office and they’ll reactivate it while you wait for it,” Ross said. “It’s very convenient.”
But employees don’t have to wait. Cary usually hand-delivers the keycards, and when he does, he confirms that they’re working with the assigned electronic door locks.
Cary also shows up if someone is having a problem getting into a classroom or office. Sometimes it relates to door locks, which have batteries and even internal clocks.
“The battery could be going dead,” Cary said. “If the clocks aren’t updated, that brand new key I just made you won’t work.”
Cary asks that employees be as patient as possible when getting new or reactivated keycards, and he has a few tips to make the process easier.
First, he advises employees to put in their requests before each semester starts and not the week that classes begin.
“If you get me the keys in time, I’m gonna give them back to you even quicker,” he said.
Cary warns employees not to let metal come in contact with the keycards’ magnetic strips. Cellphones, keys, coins, Fitbits, even necklaces and earrings can deactivate them. Cary suggests putting keycards in plastic badge holders.
“Don’t put them in your pocket with your cellphone and keys,” he said. “If you have a chain necklace, don’t wear (a keycard) around your neck.”
Employees who are having problems with keycards should contact Cary at 314-951-9809 or TCary@stlcc.edu.