In 2006 a great new feature section will appear in each and every issue of CR80News. Our new Physical Security Corner will explore key issues related to the changing security landscape. Physical security is no longer a standalone “silo” within a campus … it is a vibrant, essential component with enterprise-wide implications.

Key themes running through this recurring feature article will be identity and convergence. That is because these are among the most significant defining features of the modern security landscape. Thus it seems fitting that we explore these two concepts for this inaugural installment of our Physical Security Corner. 

Version 4.16 of Onity’s Integra3 software solution enables campuses to support online doors via ethernet rather than modem or RS485. The solution from Onity is used by more than 200 colleges and universities in North America for online and offline door control. 

Rather, keeping an eye on those who pick them up from school. The Freehold Burrough School District, leveraging a $369,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, has deployed the Teacher-Parent Authorization Security System (T-PASS™) which uses iris recognition technology to establish positive identification of school employees, parents, guardians and visitors. Its primary role is to facilitate access to the school building during the student sign-in/sign-out process. 

In a move to highlight its commitment to reducing paper waste, print management specialist Equitrac has partnered with the National Arbor Day Foundation to promote more tree-planting. The company says it will donate a native tree for planting through the foundation for every university administrator or IT professional who views a brief presentation about Equitrac Express, Equitrac’s higher education print-tracking and cost recovery solution. 

Syracuse University has inked a five-year agreement with Mac-Gray Corp. for the company’s LaundryView system that allows students to monitor the status of the washers and dryers in their campus laundry rooms from any device with a web browser, such as cell phones or computers. 

Forget fingerprints. A Toronto, Ontario company wants the whole hand involved. And it’s not talking palm prints. It wants to identify the blood vessels in your hand.

Identica Corp. has linked its Universal Controller with a hand vascular scanner manufactured by a Korean company. The result is a biometric access control mechanism solution that it claims is accurate, fast, and non-intrusive for users. 

By Andy Williams, Contributing Editor

For nine years, Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) had, in the words of its ID administrator, “just plain ID cards used for identification and library checkout of materials” and nothing more. A year ago, the small school located in Laredo, Texas on the Mexican border, switched to NuVision Networks’ One Card and hasn’t looked back.