Howard University, Washington, D.C., has selected a security management solution from Siemens that provides for building and computer access on a single card, while also allowing the card to function as a cashless payment vehicle for students and staff. A major plus is that the new system allows the university to control and monitor all campus buildings from a single workstation. ▸

A private Wisconsin pre-K-12 academy has opted for biometric hand readers to regulate school access for its students, faculty, staff, and parents. The Recognition Systems’ hand readers automatically take a three-dimensional reading of the size and shape of a hand and verify the user’s identity in less than one second. ▸

Student Advantage, which offers discount card programs at universities around the country and a stored value application known as SA Cash, has acquired Quentrix, Inc. and its technology that allows colleges using Diebold’s CS Gold to offer their campus cards to off campus merchants more efficiently and securely. It also gives more choices to Student Advantage’s SA Cash partners. ▸

by Lauren Lowrey, Contributing Editor

This semester has been a mag-stripe reading adventure for the administration at Kutztown University in southeastern Pennsylvania. Springing from a regulation to halt non-students (e.g. recent graduates, drop-outs) from using the bus, the university decided to invest in six handheld ID card readers in an attempt to better monitor ridership. In the process of implementing the PDAs with magnetic stripe readers from Tokenworks, the University gained even more than they had hoped. ▸

CBORD has announced the release of Odyssey Version 3 designed to support Oracle. CBORD’s Odyssey software is an enterprise solution for campus life and includes Privilege Control Systems (PCS), Housing Management Systems (HMS), and Judicial applications. ▸

“Gone are the days of students getting by with just email and Internet access,” said Tim Donahue, vice president – Enterprise Marketing, Sprint Business Solutions.
Sprint has recently announced the launching of their Sprint Campus Connect “mobile solution” that will allow any higher education facility’s educational and administrative resources to be available through a single, consistent interface anytime, anywhere on the Sprint PCS Network. Students could access their class syllabus, notes, and grades. Even a campus map and photos of parking lots would be available for finding empty spaces. Read on to find out more about Sprint’s and iAnywhere’s campus solution!  

“There is no better way to (control access) than by individually identifying people, using their fingerprint biometric,” said the dean of the University of Texas Medical Branch. Let’s hope he is right because the lab in question works with infectious agents such as “Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, Lassa, and Ebola.” They are using fingerprint biometric readers to make sure that only authorized personnel get access to these and other study aids. ▸